SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth Softball heads to the west side this weekend to battle Puget Sound in a four game Northwest Conference series. Saturday's doubleheader will begin at noon, and Sunday's slate is set 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: The Bucs (7-24 overall, 5-15 NWC) are coming off a busy week in which they played eight conference games in five days. They finished 2-6 in that stretch.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Whitworth battled George Fox in a series rescheduled from March 15-16. Three of the four games were decided by one run, and the Pirates came away with a 5-4 in game three. Game one went to extra innings as the Bruins tied the game in the seventh and grabbed a 7-6 win in the ninth. Whitworth played a strong game two, but GFU won 4-3 following a go-ahead RBI single in the sixth inning. The Pirates jumped ahead top open Sunday's game three and held off a late push to earn a win. The Bruins clinched a series win with an 8-4 win in game four. Teeghan Reams led the way in the series with three home runs and seven RBIs.

Over the weekend, the Pirates battled Pacific and again came away with one win. The win came in game one (5-1) as the Bucs manufactured five runs and pitcher Lina Schwippert shut down the Boxer offense with an eight-strikeout complete game. Despite Whitworth getting ahead 3-0 in game two, Pacific scored eight runs in the sixth innings and won 8-5. The Boxers came out on top of a 9-7 back-and-forth battle in game three that held 26 combined hits. The Pirates seemed to run out of gas in game four as they were shut out 3-0 with a chance to even the series. Tessa Hahn and Kendel Sage each had five hits in the series.  

The Opponents: Puget Sound heads into this weekend with a 5-25 overall record and 3-17 conference mark. Last weekend, the Loggers went 1-3 in a home series against George Fox. The Loggers have struggled thus far, ranking eighth in the conference in hitting (.255 BA), pitching (6.64 ERA), and fielding (.933 FLD%). Junior Nyomi Estrada leads the team both in the circle and in the box. She is hitting .364 with a team-high 24 hits and has a 6.10 ERA in 14 starts from the rubber. Sophomore Alyssa Waldo is second on the team with a .306 batting average and senior Elyssa Garcia leads the group with three home runs and 11 RBIs. Last season, the Pirates won three of four games against the Loggers in Tacoma.

NWC Standings: Linfield (17-3) and Pacific Lutheran (17-3) are tied atop the conference standings heading into their head-to-head battle this weekend. Lewis & Clark (14-6) holds third with George Fox (10-10) in fourth. Pacific (8-12) and Willamette (6-14) are fighting to make a jump while Whitworth (5-15) will look to separate from Puget Sound (3-17).

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 closes the 2026 season with a senior weekend series against Pacific Lutheran on April 25-26.