SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth softball hits the road this weekend looking for its first Northwest Conference win of the season. The Bucs will battle Willamette in a four-game series beginning with Friday's doubleheader at 1:00 pm. First pitch on Saturday is scheduled for 11:00 am.

Check the Whitworth softball schedule page for live links to this weekend's action.

Watch on FloCollege: All of Whitworth's home and Northwest Conference athletic events will be streamed through FloCollege in 2025-26. Fans can sign up to watch Pirate sports on the FloCollege portal. Registration is $108 for an annual subscription or $20 per month. Those who register with a .edu email address get a significant discount.

The Pirates: Whitworth (2-17, 0-8 NWC) couldn't steal a win against NFCA third-ranked Linfield in its first home series of the season.

On Saturday, Linfield took game one 8-2. The Pirates tallied eight hits against Wildcat starter Tyler McNeley, including three from Reagan Ellis, but the Linfield offense extended their advantage with a pair of home runs and two-run double. The Wildcat bats produced ten extra base hits in an 11-0 game two win. Starter Destiny Cornwell held the Pirates to just one hit in the game, tallied by Tessa Hahn.

Game three went to the Wildcats 12-2 behind four home runs. The Bucs battled in the second, keeping the bases busy and scoring another pair of runs off McNeley. Megan Highfill hit an RBI single and Landri Nakano pushed a run across with a sacrifice fly. Linfield completed the sweep with a 13-4 win in game four. After trailing early, Whitworth fought back to tie the game in the first inning with an RBI double off the bat of Ellis and a sac fly from Makena Hofford. Linfield pushed the lead back to six before Kendel Sage trimmed it again with her first home run of the season. The Wildcats plated five runs in the sixth inning to put the game out of reach.

The Opponents: Willamette is 8-16 overall and 5-7 in conference play heading into this weekend's series. Last weekend, the Bearcats split a four-game series against Pacific. They have a .274 team batting average and have 174 hits, good for fourth in the conference. Junior infielder Maggie Fleischmann leads the team with a .320 average while Maris Pinheiro leads the team with 14 RBIs. Mya Filger, Lizzie Brasher, and McKenzee Peterson have each started at least five games for Willamette. Filger leads the group with a 3.11 ERA. Last season, the Bearcats took three of four games from the Pirates in Spokane.

The Coach: Bill Baber took over as the head softball coach at Whitworth prior to the 2026 season. Baber, who has over 350 career victories to his name across NCAA DI, DII, DIII and NAIA levels, spent the last 22 seasons at California Baptist University where he served 10 seasons as a head coach, four seasons as associate head coach and eight seasons as an assistant. He led Cal Baptist to a National Christian College Athletics Association championship in his first season as a head coach in 2012 and advanced to the NCAA DII regional playoffs five seasons in a row from 2014-2018.

Looking Ahead: Whitworth returns to Marks Field for an action-packed week. The Bucs play George Fox in a rescheduled four-game series on April 8-9 before hosting Pacific in another four-game series on April 11-12.