McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Malayla Lefever's complete-game pitching victory in the series finale at Linfield made sure that Whitworth will head to the final weekend of the regular season alone in first place atop the Northwest Conference softball standings.

Defending conference champion Linfield scored three runs over the final two innings to rally for a 4-3 victory in eight innings in the opener.  The Pirates used a four-run first inning and then relied on Lefever to win the finale 4-1.

Whitworth is now 27-9 overall and 18-6 in the NWC.  The Wildcats are 25-11, 14-10. 

The Pirates hold a one-game lead over both George Fox and Pacific (both 17-7) in the conference standings heading into next weekend's series at home against Lewis & Clark.  GFU and Pacific will finish the regular season against one another.  Linfield is in fourth place.

The regular season champion hosts the NWC tournament, which will determine the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.

Game 1 – Linfield 4, Whitworth 3 (8 innings)
Grace Middlestadt scored the winning run on a squeeze in the bottom of the eighth inning to cap Linfield's rally from a 3-0 deficit in the opener.

One day after Whitworth was no-hit by starting pitcher Montana McNealy, the Pirates jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning against her.  Chelsey Hayes and Shannon Wessel used infield hits to get on base and Peyton McMahon followed with an RBI double to score Hayes.

Whitworth increased the lead to 3-0 in the top of the fifth.  The Pirates loaded the bases with one out against McNealy.  After McMahon struck out Tessa Matthews came through with a two-out double that drove in Hayes and Megan John.

The Wildcats got their first run back in the bottom of the fifth when Danielle Duman hit her league-leading 13^th home run of the season to the opposite field.

Other than that hit, Madi Perez kept the hard-hitting Wildcats off of the scoreboard until the bottom of the seventh.  Erin Kinney doubled to lead off the inning and Erin Tauscher followed with her seventh homer of the season to tie the game.

Middlestadt turned a leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth into the winning run.  She went to second on a ground out and to third on a single to center by Cheyenne Fletcher.  McKenna Speith laid a perfect squeeze bunt down the left field line to drive in Middlestadt.

McNealy improved to 17-4 this season after allowing three runs on seven hits.  She struck out 11 and walked two.

Perez dropped to 13-6 after she allowed four runs on eight hits over 7.1 innings.  She struck out four and walked one.

Game 2 – Whitworth 4, Linfield 1
Lefever improved to 14-2 with her second win of the weekend over the Wildcats.  She scattered eight hits and struck out six batters without allowing a walk.

Whitworth sent ten batters to the plate in a four-run first inning against Linfield starter Maddy Dunn.  McMahon and Matthews had back-to-back RBI singles.  Kayla Batastini reached on an error, which allowed McMahon to score.  Sacha Clow added her own run-scoring single to complete the rally.

Dunn then settled down and didn't allow another run.  The Pirates appeared to tack on another when Clow opened the sixth with a bunt single and Kelsey Stroshine followed with a double to right-center field.  Clow initially stopped at third, but tried to score when a throw got away at home plate.  Spieth, Linfield's catcher, applied the tag to get Clow at home.  Dunn then got two more outs to strand Stroshine at third base.

Linfield got its only run in the bottom of the sixth.  Fletcher opened the inning with a single and Spieth doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs.  Fletcher scored on a ground out and Lefever got Tauscher to pop up to third.  Lefever then struck out the powerful Duman to end the threat.

Dunn dropped to 7-6 after allowing four runs (two earned) on eight hits in 5.2 innings.