These Wildcats have nine lives

May 09, 2009

MARSHALL,
Texas -Run-scoring hits by freshmen Staci Doucette (Fr., Vancouver, Wash.) and Emilee Lepp (Fr., Colville, Wash.) rescued Linfield
from the clutches of defeat in the bottom of the seventh inning, helping the
Wildcats shock host East Texas Baptist 2-1 in the semifinals of the NCAA Division
III West Regional Saturday at Taylor Field.



Linfield moves on to play Texas-Tyler on Mother’s Day and must beat the
Patriots twice in order to advance to next week’s NCAA Finals. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. Central Time.



Earlier Saturday, the Wildcats ended the season of Louisiana College, beating
the Lady Wildcats 4-1 behind a masterful pitching performance by Kendra Strahm (Sr., Medford, Ore.).



LINFIELD 2, EAST TEXAS BAPTIST 1

Down 1-0 and confined to one hit by ETBU freshman pitcher Erin Garcia, the Wildcats
looked to be on their last legs heading to the bottom of the seventh. With one
out, Rochelle Friend (Jr., Hood River, Ore.) singled, then scored the game-tying run on Doucette’s
nifty triple that scraped the left-field line, allowing Friend to just beat out the throw
to home plate. Lepp then provided the game-changing hit, a long shot to left field that touched off a wild celebration.




Wildcats starter Brittany Miller (Sr., Port Orchard, Wash.) threw seven solid innings, striking out seven
Tigers while allowing four hits. Miller nearly left the game with two outs in
the top of the seventh due to pain in her pitching arm, but the All-American
waived off reliever Samantha Van Noy (Jr., Sherwood, Ore.), then coaxed Alicia Wright to fly out to
right field for the third out.



Friend, whose ground ball through the infield ignited the rally, had two hits
in the game to pace the Wildcats at the plate.



ETBU took a 1-0 lead in the second inning a Megan Fisher’s towering home
run over the left-field wall.

Garcia faced the minimum number of Wildcats through six innings and appeared
on her way to her seventh win of the season. But she surrendered hits to three
consecutive batters in the wild seventh inning.



ETBU ended its season at 39-9. Linfield improved to 39-5.



“It was a pretty amazing finish,” said Wildcats coach Jackson Vaughan.
“It all started with Rochelle Friend’s big hit, then to have our
freshmen, Stacy and Emilee, come through with clutch hits, you couldn’t
ask for a better ending. Both of them had struggled at the plate to that point.



“It was nice to see our young kids continue the tradition of fighting
hard to the very end.”



Vaughan had praise for Miller, who has logged 20 innings of action in the Wildcats’
three tournament games.



“Brittany was pitching on experience and guts,” he said. “She
didn’t have much left in the tank, but dug down and got us outs when we
needed them.”



Miller threw 88 pitches, 65 of them strikes. She improved to 15-3 with seven
strikeout performance.



LINFIELD
4, LOUISIANA COLLEGE 1

Strahm, Linfield’s other pitching ace, threw a complete-game victory to
raise her record to 12-1. Through Strahm struck out only one hitter and allowed
eight hits, the senior righthander kept the LC hitters from getting untracked.




A three-run fourth inning broke open a tight contest for Linfield, which never
trailed on its way to its second win of the tournament.



Louisiana College outhit Linfield 8-6, but the Wildcats delivered their hits
in bunches.



Emilee
Lepp went 2 for 4 and drove in a pair of runs, and Natalie Taylor (Soph., Tualatin, Ore.)’s single
added another score for the Wildcats.



McCaslin Carson was 2 for 3 for LC and pitched the game’s first five innings.
She struck out four Wildcats before giving way to Rene Schwartzenberg.



“Kendra spotted the ball well and got them to put the ball in play in
all the right places,” said Vaughan. “It was a typical Kendra Strahm
game - not dominating, but efficient.”



The Wildcats are now 23-4 when facing elimination in NCAA playoff games.

Emilee Lepp
Delivers game-winning hit in 7th