Holm's walk-off caps doubleheader sweep of Whitworth

Holm's walk-off caps doubleheader sweep of Whitworth | https://golinfieldwildcats.com/

By South Oregon News Reports

Mar 20, 2023

Holm's walk-off caps doubleheader sweep of Whitworth

Linfield scattered 11 hits in Game 1 and walked off on Whitworth in Game 2 to earn a doubleheader sweep of the Pirates Saturday at Roy Helser Field.

Cameron Skinner collected five hits between the two games and Jake Hoskins crushed his third home run of the year to lead the Wildcats at the plate. The 'Cats have won three straight games since their series loss at Puget Sound last week.

Both of Linfield's starting pitchers, John Over and Casey Struckmeier, lasted five innings. The Wildcat pitching staff struck out a combined 15 batters on the day, including nine in the opener.

GAME 1: Linfield 12, Whitworth 1
Linfield distributed 12 runs across three innings. The Wildcats took the lead with four runs in the second inning. Whitworth got a run back in the third on a sacrifice fly by Aaron Clogston. But the 'Cats scored eight unanswered runs, seven coming in the seventh inning.

Skinner was a perfect 4 for 4 with a walk, two runs and two RBI. Garrett Moen notched three hits, two runs and two RBI while Hoskins drove in four runs despite having just one hit. The lone hit was a three-run homer to left field in the seventh inning.

Hoskins matched Nick Holm's team lead with his third homer of the season. Skinner leads all qualified batters with a .386 batting average and is riding a nine-game hit streak. He had a hit in all but two games so far this season.

Over allowed one run on two hits while establishing a new career high with seven strikeouts. The trio of Grant Knox, Aidan McCann and Brian Mannion threw scoreless baseball out of the bullpen and didn't walk a single batter.

GAME 2: Linfield 3, Whitworth 2
Holm's debut season just keeps getting better. The freshman third baseman singled to left-center field for his first career walk-off hit, sending Bodey Smith home before being mobbed in the infield by the rest of the team.

Linfield got on the board in the third inning when Hoskins ripped an RBI double to left. The shortstop went 2 for 4 in the nightcap.

After three scoreless innings, Whitworth took the lead with a two-run seventh inning. But the 'Cats responded right away the following half inning, tying the game at 2-2 with an RBI single from Danny Kahn in his third game of the season.

Struckmeier threw five innings for the second time this season, allowing just three hits while striking out two. Gavin Ludlow improved to 1-1 on the year, sitting down three Pirates in the final 1 2/3 innings.