GAME 1: Linfield 8, Pacific 0 (5 innings)
Box Score
GAME 2: Linfield 8, Pacific 0 (5 innings)
Box Score
MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Pacific softball team spent around six hours on the diamond in their home opener Saturday. If Saturday's doubleheader split with Willamette was an epic film, Sunday's trip to Linfield was more along the lines of a documentary short.
Six hours was probably enough for the bus ride to and from McMinnville and a stop for hamburgers as the defending national champion Wildcats took care of the Boxers in short order with a pair of five-inning mercy rule shutouts, winning each game 8-0 to run their season-opening winning streak to ten games.
Game one lasted just over an hour and a half and game two was even shorter. The Wildcats' Karin Paavola tossed a no-hitter in the second game, striking out six batters and walking one to run her season record to 5-0. A trio of Boxer pitchers kept the slugging 'Cats in the park, but surrendered nine hits without striking out a batter.
The Boxers (3-5 Northwest Conference, 5-11 overall) did put together a pair of scoring threats. After Paavola retired the first eight batters of the game, Pacific starting pitcher
Shannon Miller (So., Vancouver, Wash.) reached base on a walk with two outs in the third inning. An error by Wildcats' third baseman Karleigh Prestianni put
Becca Moen (So., Gresham, Ore.) aboard and pushed pinch runner
Becca Brown (Fr., Gaston, Ore.) to second. After the Beccas pulled off a double steal, Paavola struck out
Jenna Stevens (So., Medford, Ore.) to strand the two runners in scoring position.
Already leading 5-0, Linfield started a two-out rally in the fourth after reliever
Chloe Hanson (Fr., Trail, Ore.) walked Linfield leadoff batter Grace Middelstadt. Middelstadt stole second and scored on a double down the left field line by Jaydee Baxter. Emilee Lepp followed with an RBI single to make it 7-0 'Cats.
In the Pacific fifth,
Kiera Melton (Fr., Pleasanton, Calif.) was hit by a pitch with one out, making her way to third on an error and fielder's choice before pinch-hitter
MacKenzie LaMotte (Fr., Hillsboro, Ore.) struck out to end the threat. Linfield ended the game with one out in the bottom of the inning on Jordan Mixsell's RBI single.
Mixsell went 2 for 3 in the game and Baxter was 2 for 2 with three RBI and two runs scored.
Shannon Miller (0-3) took the loss for Pacific, allowing five runs, four earned, in two innings of work.
Game one saw the Boxers put the leadoff runner aboard in the first and third innings. Moen led off with a base hit, but the Boxers could not advance the runner, grounding into three straight force outs. Melton was hit by a pitch to lead off the third and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by
Kaitlyn Shikada (Fr., Honolulu, Hawaii), but back-to-back groundouts by Moen and Stevens ended the threat.
Lepp, the Division III Catcher of the Year in 2010 after hitting a national record 29 home runs, clubbed her fourth of the year off Hanson with two outs and nobody on in the first inning to give the 'Cats a 1-0 lead.
Hanson kept the Linfield bats relatively silent until the fourth inning, when Prestianni singled and scored on Ashley Garcia's fifth home run in seven games. The Wildcats added another unearned run to take a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth, when they scored four more times to hit the 8-run mercy rule threshold. Lepp's RBI double was the final blow, scoring Erin Carlson with the game-ending run.
Lepp went 2 for 4 at the plate with three RBI in game one and Garcia was 1 for 2 with two runs and two RBI.
Jordan Mittelsdorf (Sr., Boardman, Ore.) had Pacific's only other hit, a two-out single in the fourth inning. Lauren Harvey tossed the two-hit, five-inning shutout for the 'Cats, striking out four with no walks. Hanson was charged with the loss, allowing four runs, three earned, on four hits with two strikeouts and three bases on balls.
The Boxers play their next six consecutive games at home, including a rematch with Linfield at Sherman/Larkins Stadium on Saturday, March 17. Prior to that, the Boxers will play a pair of doubleheaders against Whitworth, with games starting at noon on Saturday and Sunday March 10-11.
