April 12, 2008

PLU Battles No. 4 Linfield But Drops Twinbill

Game One
Game Two

PARKLAND, Wash. - Linfield scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning of the second game to take a hard-fought 6-4 victory in wrapping up a Northwest Conference softball doubleheader sweep of Pacific Lutheran on Saturday afternoon.

The visiting Wildcats also won the opener, 6-0, and are now 28-2 for the season in addition to a conference-leading 17-1. The Lutes gave the defending national champion and No. 4-ranked Wildcats plenty to handle but still fell to 12-18 overall and 9-9 in conference action.

Linfield ralled from a 3-1 deficit in the second game, scoring two in the sixth inning to tie it and adding another in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead. PLU tied it in its half of the seventh when Beth Haahr dropped a single into left field to score Carly Starke, who had reached on a looping double that just eluded Linfield shortstop Meredith Brunette.

The Wildcats finally won the game in the ninth, combining four hits to score two runs. Rochelle Friend hit a one-out single, followed by Kayla Hubrich's base hit, but Friend was thrown out at third base. Stephanie Rice followed with a double to put two in scoring position, and Jenny Marshall drove in Hubrich with a double. Rice then scored the final run on a wild pitch.

PLU scored a run in the first when Heather Walling hit a triple and came across on a Linfield error. After Linfield got one back in the second on Emily Keagbine's RBI double, the Lutes tallied two more in the third. Rachel Wheeler-Hoyt led off with a double and she moved to third on Carly Starke's single. The pair then pulled off a double steal for the first run, and Starke scored on Brittney Weissenbuehler's run-scoring double.

By the time that the game was decided in the ninth, both starting pitchers were long gone. Linfield's Kendra Strahm lasted just two innings while Wheeler-Hoyt went five innings. Brittany Miller, Linfield's third pitcher, earned the win by allowing one run on five hits with seven strikeouts in six innings. Hadley Schmitt took the loss, giving up three runs on seven hits in four innings.

Miller was the story in the opener, allowing only one hit - Caitlin Brown's seventh inning bunt single - while striking out 15. The game was scoreless until Linfield broke through against losing pitcher Hadley Schmitt for four runs in the fifth inning. Brunette had a two-run single and Erica Hancock also drove in a run with a base hit. Linfield added single runs in the sixth and seventh to wrap up the win.

Rice and Marshall both had five hits in the doubleheader to pace the Wildcats, while Starke had a three-hit game in the nightcap for PLU.

The Lutes return to action at noon on Sunday when they host Willamette in another Northwest Conference doubleheader.

- PLU -