Linfield Softball: Wildcats reach 10th NCAA Championship
For the fourth consecutive year, Linfield’s softball program is heading to the NCAA Championship Finals.
The Wildcats advanced past the Super Regionals for the 10th time in program history and onto the final eight by defeating Moravian University 9-5 on Friday in front of a faithful crowd at Del Smith Stadium.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Wildcats’ Head Coach Jackson Vaughan said postgame. “This was pushing our wildest dreams to start the year, just knowing we’d graduated 70% of our starters.”
In Friday’s clincher, senior catcher Ashlyn Aven drove in four runs, with a double and a two-run shot over the centerfield fence in the first inning that gave Linfield a 2-0 lead. Fellow senior Cydney Hess added a pair of hits, including a double, and scored twice to fuel a 14-hit Wildcats attack.
The duo has been expected to perform all season, but continuing to please Vaughan has been those stepped into new starting roles.
Sophomore right fielder Kaia Young was 3-for-4 with and scored Hess in the first inning to extend Linfield’s lead to 3-0. Junior second baseman and Yamhill Carlton alumnus Lexiss Antle was also clutch, going 2-for-4 with three RBI’s.
Two of Antle’s RBIs came in the seventh inning, allowing the Wildcats, playing as a road squad on their own field, to pad their lead by four runs after Moravian scored five in the fourth inning. At the time, it made the score just 6-5 in Linfield’s favor.
“It’s probably one of the more satisfying years we’ve made it to the World Series just because we did improve so much through the year and overcame so many big losses,” Vaughan said. “We’ve been there enough and make it seem like — not easy, but just expected, and it’s certainly not. It was beyond my expectations to some degree.
“I just wanted to see how good we could get this team by the end of the year, and they just took it and ran with it. Particularly once we got to the playoffs, they’ve just played lights out.”
Since a 7-3 loss to Pacific Lutheran University on April 19 in Tacoma, Linfield has won 12 consecutive games. That has included three more combined victories versus PLU in the Northwest Conference Tournament and Regional round.
After three losses to PLU in that fateful April series, Vaughan and the Wildcats admitted their pride was hurt. The team was physically incapacitated as well, with Young, freshman pitcher Destiny Cornwell and junior hurler Tyler McNeley all battling injuries. However, it was not used as an excuse, and instead, the team regrouped and began to play more like the Catball that Vaughan is accustomed to seeing.
The Wildcats’ youth movement was on display more so during the first game versus Moravian on Thursday, where Linfield secured a commanding 10-2 victory in six innings.
Freshman first baseman and Sherwood High School product McKenna Parmelee was the big bat, going 2-for-4 with a double, three RBIs and a run scored. Sophomore left fielder Breanna Bartek was another catalyst from the leadoff spot, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored, two RBIs and a walk.
Sophomore shortstop Sophie Pappas added an RBI in a 2-for-4 performance, while junior center fielder Meara Sain reached base four times in the No. 2 hole with a duo of hits and walks.
Hess homered in the contest, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs, while Aven drove in two of her own.
Knowing the team would look much different than years past, Hess’s only concern heading into the season was being a role-model senior for those following in her footsteps.
“I just wanted to be a good leader for the girls and show that if we work hard, we can do whatever we put our minds to,” Hess said.
As exemplified by their ability to add on after Moravian was able to stick McNeley with a loud inning on Friday, Aven looks forward to the final games she’ll play as a Wildcat. She is also hopeful about the future of Linfield softball after seeing the growth of her younger teammates.
“This team has a lot of fight in them, and they battled through everything,” Aven said. “We didn’t expect to be here at the beginning of the year, but I also thought, ‘Why not us?’ In practice, I’ve seen how good these girls are, and I tried to tell them that you guys just gotta be confident. If you go up to the box with confidence, you’re going to play awesome, and that’s what they’ve been doing the past few weeks.”
In the circle, McNeley pitched through both games versus Moravian.
The junior threw 97 pitches and struck out seven on Thursday, all while allowing just two walks, two runs and three hits over six innings. McNeley’s 11 hits allowed on Friday were the second most this season, but she responded by setting down three in a row after a leadoff double in the sixth inning and struck out two in the seventh.
Linfield’s first game in the double-elimination finals bracket, being played in Salem, Virginia, will be versus Redlands (43-6). First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. PDT) on Thursday, with live streaming of the game available on NCAA.com. Linfield enters the final tournament as the No. 4 seed.
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