Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College softball used a pair of fifth-inning comebacks to tie the program record for longest winning streak on Thursday afternoon at the Huston Sports Complex. 
 
THE BASICS
Lewis & Clark 6, Pacific University 4
Lewis & Clark 5, Pacific 3
(Lewis & Clark 16-8, Northwest Conference 8-6) 
(Pacific 4-17, NWC 2-11) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Senior Kalea Kaui and sophomore Riley Anderson each hit a go-ahead home run in the fifth inning to help the Pioneers extend their winning streak to nine. The mark ties the 1978 team that started the season 9-0 against non JV-opponents before suffering their first loss. 
 
With the two wins, Lewis & Clark stretched their winning streak to seven in a row in conference and kept their perfect record at the Huston Sports Complex (8-0) this year intact. 
 
GAME ONE RECAP 
 
Both teams took advantage of defensive miscues to strike for a four-run inning, but the Pioneers managed to score the final six runs of the game after falling behind 4-0 in the third. 
 
Kaui, junior Sam Gildersleeve and freshman McKenna Zehnder provided the majority of the offense in game one. Kaui hit a go-ahead three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the fifth to end Pacific ace Mia Barrozo's day. 
 
Gildersleeve came off the bench to finish 2-2 with two runs, one RBI and a solo home run. Zehnder started the Pioneers scoring with a two-run, two-out single in the fourth to cut the deficit to 4-2. 
 
In the circle, freshman Tallulah Sickels got the start. Sickels went 2.2 innings and allowed three hits, one walk, four unearned runs and struck out two. Fellow freshman Charlize Pope came on in the third and limited Pacific to three hits and one walk, while striking out, in 4.1 scoreless innings of relief. 
 
Pacific took advantage of a pair of Pioneers miscues to strike for four runs in the third. After a leadoff single, each of the next two batters reached on errors to load the bases. Sickels struck out the next batter to keep the game tied, but Chloe Knepp singled to give the Boxers a 1-0 edge. After a fielder's choice wiped out the lead runner, Alexus Carter gave the visitors a 3-0 lead on a 2-run single up the middle. Pope came on and allowed an RBI single to Rylee Patton, before she induced a pop up to end the inning. 
 
After leaving three runners on through the first three innings, Lewis & Clark scratched across runs in the fourth. Anderson opened the inning with a hit by pitch and Gildersleeve put runners at second and third when she singled and then stole second. With two outs, Zehnder lined a single through the left side that plated both runners. 
 
The Pioneers added four more two-out runs in the fifth. Freshman Emily Patton opened the rally with a double to the warning track in left with one out and Alvarez reached on an error to bring the go-ahead run to the plate. With two outs, Kaui laced a home run over the left-center field fence to make it 5-4. Gildersleeve greeted the Boxers reliever with a line-drive home run to right to give the Pios a huge insurance run. 
 
Pope allowed just one infield hit over the final two innings to finish off the victory. 
 
GAME TWO RECAP 
 
Pacific battled back to take a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth, only for Lewis & Clark to use a similar formula to complete the four-game conference sweep. 
 
Alvarez, Anderson and Lainey Honma were the offensive catalysts in game two. Alvarez went 2-2 with two runs, three RBI, a home run and a walk. Anderson added the go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth and Honma went 2-3 with two runs and a stolen base out of the leadoff spot. 
 
Senior Alyssa Abe took a no-decision for Lewis & Clark. Abe went 4.2 innings and scattered five hits, one walk and three earned runs, while striking out three. Freshman Maggie O'Leary came on to get the Pioneers out of the fifth and earned the win after allowing two walks in 2.1 scoreless innings. 
 
Game two started much better for the Pioneers. Honma led off the first with a single, stole second and was able to walk home after Alvarez crushed a two-run homer over the left-center field fence. 
 
Pacific cut the deficit to 2-1 in the second, when Samantha Madsen hit her first collegiate homer. 
 
After two scoreless innings, Pacific took their first lead of the game with a two-out rally in the top of the fifth. With two outs, Haylie Uetake walked and her pinch-runner raced all the way home from first on a double from Samantha Petitt. The Boxers made it 3-2 when Knepp singled through the middle to score Petitt. 
 
Lewis & Clark responded in the bottom of the frame. Honma singled with one out and took second on a wild pitch with two outs. She easily raced home when Alvarez lined a single into right-center field. Anderson followed with a towering home run down the left-field line to make it 5-3 Pioneers. 
 
O'Leary walked one batter in the sixth and seventh innings but that would be the only trouble she would run into in earning her second win of the week. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• The Pios nine-game winning streak is tied for the longest in program history. It's only the fifth winning streak of seven or more games in program history. The Pios won seven in a row in 1980, 1981 and 1998 and nine in a row in 1978. No Pioneers softball team has ever won 10 in a row.
• Gildersleeve's solo home run in game one brought her total to 25 for her career. She is just one home runs shy of tying Olivia Brackin ('22) for the program record for career home runs. 
• Lewis & Clark hit four home runs in the doubleheader and are now up to 21 on the season. Their 21 homers are the sixth-most in program history in a single-season and are only 18 behind last year's team which set the program record with 39 in 38 games. 
• Lewis & Clark improved to 8-0 at Huston and 10-2 overall in home games. Their lone two home losses came when the team travelled off campus to play the University of Puget Sound at Rosemont Middle School in West Linn, Oregon. 
• In three appearances this week, O'Leary is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 7.1 innings. She's allowed 0 hits, four walks and struck out seven. 
• With their two wins on Thursday, the Pioneers earned their first NWC four-game sweep of a conference opponent since 2021, when they swept Willamette University at home on April 2 and 3. 
• The Pios improved to 8-0 against teams with the word Pacific in their name. Lewis & Clark is 4-0 against Pacific University, swept Warner Pacific University on Wednesday and won the first two games of their scheduled four-game set against Pacific Lutheran University on Monday.  

WHO'S NEXT 
 
The Pioneers scheduled doubleheader against George Fox University (Saturday and Sunday) has been moved up a day due to rain in the forecast this weekend. The two teams are now slated to play on Friday (Noon/2pm) and Saturday (Noon/2pm) at the Huston Sports Complex.