The weather was less than great this weekend, but good enough for the men’s baseball team to sweep Whitworth.

In game one, the Whitworth Pirates scored first in the fourth inning. But thanks to the pitching talents of juniors Cason Cunningham, Dylan Peters, and Liam Herlihy, the Pirates wouldn’t score another run for the rest of the game.

Linfield would get a score of its own in the fifth inning when Brady Rediger, ’18 doubled to center field and brought Joey Cassano, ‘18, home.
The Wildcats would add to their score and take the lead in the seventh inning. Rediger would once again bring a teammate home this time it came off a single to the right side that scored Daniel Zavala, ‘18.

“As a whole team, everybody was sharp. All the way up and down the line up, the hitters did a great job of sticking to our approach and it paid off,” Rediger said about the weekend that.
Linfield would end up the scoring and taking the game when Rediger came home on a walk by Cameron Fox, ’18, with bases-loaded making the score 3 – 1.

In game two, the Wildcats would defeat the Pirates again by taking a huge lead by the fourth inning. The Pirates would have to play catch up for the rest of the game.

In the seventh inning, the ’Cats took away any hope of a comeback from the Pirates when a dropped fly allowed Ben Whitt, ’21, and Fox, ’18, to score.

The Wildcats won the second game 9 – 3.

The final game had the ’Cats embarrassing Whitworth with a blowout win of 13 – 0.

The first score came in the second inning when Zavala homered and brought Jake Dennis, ’18, home.

But the final nail in the coffin for the Pirates hopes came in the third when Linfield scored seven runs. The Wildcats would add to their dominating lead in the fifth and ninth inning scoring two runs in each.

Another key part to their victory in the third game has to be the clutch pitching, especially from Carter Buck, ’18. He allowed only one hit and no walks in six innings of play.

“I felt really good about the win and proud of my teammates performance in all aspects of the game. We really needed these games and we did exceedingly well,” Levi Horner-Villa, ’20, said.
Linfield became 19-14 overall and 11-8 in the NWC after the weekend. The Wildcats are fighting to host the four-team NWC tournament. The team is only three games behind the league leader Pacific Lutheran.

The Wildcats will travel to take on the third-place Whitman Blues for a three-game series that starts at noon Saturday with a double header. And play the final game on Sunday, again at noon.