PARKLAND, Wash. – Rylee Gentner hit a grand slam to highlight a nine-run sixth inning to lift Whitworth to a 15-9 win in the finale of its Northwest Conference softball opening series and avoid a sweep at Pacific Lutheran on Saturday. The Lutes took the first game 6-4.
Whitworth (11-5 overall, 1-3 NWC) is scheduled to host Pacific (Ore.) next weekend in the first home games of the season for the Pirates.
Game 1 – PLU 6, Whitworth 4
The Pirates took a 4-3 lead into the fifth inning, but the Lutes (11-5, 3-1) scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth to win the first game on Saturday.
Brooke Tilson's two-run single in the bottom of the second gave PLU a 2-0 lead. Whitworth tied the game in the top of the third on Heather Menzer's two-run home run. The Lutes went back up by a run in the bottom of third on Casey Wright's RBI single.
Whitworth scored twice in the fourth to take the lead. With runners at first and third, Haley Montoya broke for second and drew a throw, allowing Gentner to score from third. Montoya was out on the play. Two batters later Maddy Thomas hit a homer to left center field, her seventh home run of the season.
The Pirates kept PLU off the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth, but the Lutes rallied with three runs in the fifth. Erin McGrath's double tied the game. Wright followed with a two-run double to right-center field for the winning margin.
Whitworth got two runners on base with none out in the top of the seventh, but reliever Emma Ware induced a pop up and then struck out the final two batters.
Corinne Vasiloff (5-4) went the distance in the circle for the Pirates, allowing six runs (three earned) on eight hits and three walks. She struck out four batters.
PLU starter Amaya Smith was relieved after walking five batters in the first 1.1 innings. Marley Dyer got the win with two innings of one-hit relief and Ware picked up her first save of the season.
Thomas, who went 2-3, was the only Pirate with more than one hit in the game.
Game 2 – Whitworth 15, PLU 9
Whitworth ran out to a 6-0 lead, the Lutes rallied to tie the game by the fifth inning, then the Pirates exploded for nine runs in the sixth.
The Bucs put up three runs in the top of the first. Montoya had a run-scoring single and Menzer closed the rally with an RBI double. Whitworth doubled the lead in the fourth. Menzer drove in two runs with her second double of the game and the final run scored on a PLU error.
Kennedy Kila's two-run home run got the Lutes on the board in the bottom of the fourth. PLU tied the game with four runs in the fifth. McGrath hit a two run home run and Kila added an RBI single later in the inning.
Menzer's RBI single started Whitworth's biggest inning of the series. Nashoni Boyd followed with a two-run single. After a PLU error loaded the bases, Gentner lofted a home run to left field for a grand slam. Two batters later Thomas drilled a ball over the centerfield wall to make the score 15-6.
The Lutes scored two in the bottom of the sixth to avoid a mercy-rule end to the game. Wright had an RBI double in the rally. PLU scored their final run in the bottom of the seventh on a ground out to shortstop.
Menzer went 4-5 at the plate for Whitworth with four RBIs. Montoya was 3-5 with three RBIs and three runs scored. Mattea Nelson and Thomas had two hits each.
Momi Lyman started in the circle and allowed six runs on six hits in four innings. Vasiloff (6-4) came on in relief and threw the final three frames to earn the win. She allowed three runs on one hit and four walks. Vasiloff was involved in all four decisions this weekend.
Four pitchers saw action for PLU. Kila (4-1) was credited with the loss in relief.
