Softball drowns out Boxers late at night

Chelsea+Horita%2C+%E2%80%9820%2C+%28%2355%29+slides+past+Pacific+second+baseman+Trisha+Snyder+for+the+steal.

Dustin Lau

Chelsea Horita, ‘20, (#55) slides past Pacific second baseman Trisha Snyder for the steal.

Gabriel Nair, Staff writer

After a weekend where Saturday’s double header got cancelled due to weather, softball finally got to play a game on Sunday against Pacific.

In the first game, Linfield hammered Pacific, winning 7-2. Cheyenne Fletcher, ’18, started the attack early, hitting a homer to left field. From there, Linfield continued to pile on the pressure with Linfield’s pitcher not allowing any runs until the sixth inning.

But despite the late and short surge by Pacific, Linfield’s offensive might have kept Pacific out of the conversation, especially due to a late home run from Melanie Oord, ’18.

“There was a lot of energy tonight, especially playing under the lights. Mel and Cheyenne’s home runs were a great spark and there were solid hits up and down the lineup,” Jenica Neuffer, ’18, said.

In the second game, Linfield was even more dominant, winning 7-1. In the early stages of the game, the Wildcats offense wasn’t nearly as dominant as it was in the first game, scoring only two runs in the first four innings. But in the fifth, the offense exploded, scoring three runs.

Pacific was unable to score for the first six innings and only scored due to a wild pitch with the bases loaded. It allowed the runner at third to come home and score before Linfield wrapped up the game.

Eliza Rossman, ’21, pitched a great game. Throughout the game, she allowed only four hits, got two strikeouts and earned her 15th pitching win of the season.

“We didn’t let the weather dictate our play. We came out the first inning of the first game ready to play to our potential,” Oord said.

“We produced offensively all the way through the line up, and we played some great defense to back up our pitchers who pitched amazing games,” she said. “They really controlled the pacific line up offensively.”

The ‘Cats will complete the four game series tomorrow night with a doubleheader starting at 5 p.m.