PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College softball honored their seniors and then went out and secured a .500 record and a tie for fifth-place in the Northwest Conference standings in their longest doubleheader of the 2023 season. 

THE BASICS
Lewis & Clark 11, Willamette University 8
Willamette University 11, Lewis & Clark 7
(Lewis & Clark 19-19, NWC 11-17)
(Willamette University 16-22, NWC 11-17) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
With heavy rain in the forecast, Sunday's regular-season finale doubleheader was pushed back to a 1:30 pm start and didn't wrap up until after 8 p.m. due to a 72-minute rain delay and over five hours of softball between the two games. 
 
Prior to game one, Lewis & Clark honored their four seniors: Lindsey Flegel, Alyssa Abe, Kalea Kaui and Kylie Hill. The quartet led Lewis & Clark to three-straight finishes in the top-five in the NWC and the program's first trip to the NWC Tournament in 2021. Their 55 wins in 3+ seasons put them near the top of program history for most successful classes. 
 
Lewis & Clark racked up 18 runs and 20 hits across the two contests with several players making history. In the circle, Hill made her first appearance of the season and recorded a 1-2-3 top of the seventh in game one for her first collegiate save in her final collegiate outing. 
 
GAME ONE RECAP 
 
In a game that featured just three scoreless half innings, Lewis & Clark used a five-run fourth inning to grab a 9-5 lead and held on for their 19^th win of the season. 
 
Five different Pioneers finished with multiple hits led by junior Sam Gildersleeve. Gildersleeve went 3-4 with three runs, one RBI and her program-record tying 26^th career home run. 
 
Sophomore Riley Anderson went 2-4 with one run, three RBI, a double and a triple to set the program-record for total bases in a single-season. Kaui chipped in two hits, two runs, three RBI and a double, while junior Alyssa Hoeke went 2-3 with two runs and a walk. Junior Mari Alvarez reached all four times she stepped to the plate with two hits, one walk, one hit by pitch and a run scored. 
 
In the circle, Abe earned the start and went three innings and allowed four runs. Freshman Charlize Pope went one inning to earn the win and fellow freshman Maggie O'Leary kept the Bearcats at bay for the next two innings. Hill came on and retired all three batters she faced for the save. 
 
After Willamette grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, Lewis & Clark immediately responded. Alvarez walked to lead off and Kaui put two one with one out on a single through the left side. Anderson plated both runners with a line-drive double to right-center. 
 
Neither side would score in the second but those would be the last scoreless frames until the seventh. 
 
Willamette took the lead in the top of the third with a solo home run and two-run shot (4-2). The Pioneers answered with a two-out, two-run single from freshman McKenna Zehnder that plated freshman Madison Scroggins and Gildersleeve. 
 
The Bearcats added a single run in the top of the fourth to regain the lead at 5-4. Lewis & Clark responded with five runs on four hits and an error. With two runners on and one out, Kaui ripped a double to left field to make it 6-5 Pioneers. Anderson followed with a triple to straight-away center that the center field slipped on while trying to track it down. Scroggins added an RBI groundout and Lewis & Clark added a fifth run when Gildersleeve raced home on a Willamette error. 
 
The visitors would respond with two runs in the top of the fifth, only to have Lewis & Clark extend their lead to 10-7 on a Kaui RBI groundout with the bases loaded. 
 
After another Bearcats run cut it to 10-8, Gildersleeve opened the bottom of the sixth inning with a no-doubter to left field to tie the program record for long balls. 
 
Hill set down the visitors with three-straight ground outs to third for the first and only 1-2-3 half inning of game one. 
 
GAME TWO RECAP 
 
Willamette raced out to a 9-1 lead and held on to beat the Pioneers and the sun going down, in both team's final game of the 2023 season. 
 
Anderson finished 3-4 with two runs and four RBI to eclipse the 50-RBI mark for the season. Alvarez added a single, two runs and a walk and Kaui doubled and scored twice. 
 
In the circle, Abe made her final collegiate start and after being roughed up early, came back on and kept the Pioneers in the game. She went six innings and allowed eight hits and five runs, while striking out two. 
 
Willamette scored three runs in the top of the first on a three-run homer from Brianna Majors and made it 4-0 on a wild pitch in the third.
 
Lewis & Clark recorded their first two hits and first run of game two in the third. With two down, Alvarez singled to left center, took second on a wild pitch and scored on freshman Emily Patton's RBI double down the left-field line. 
 
Willamette scored five runs in the top of the fourth (four before the first out was scored). Abe came on for a Pios reliever and allowed just two runs over the final four innings to keep Lewis & Clark's comeback chances alive. 
 
The Pioneers began their rally and wiped out the mercy rule in the bottom of the fourth. After back-to-back singles from Anderson and Scroggins, Lewis & Clark put the double steal in effect and Anderson slid underneath the tag of the catcher to make it 9-2. Abe followed with a line-drive single up the middle to score Scroggins from second. 
 
Lewis & Clark cut the deficit to 9-5 in the fifth. With two down, Kaui reached on an error and Anderson blasted a two-run home run to center field for her 13^th homer of the season. 
 
Willamette answered with two big insurance runs, when Mia Lund hit a two-out, two-run homer in the top of the sixth. 
 
Lewis & Clark had one last flurry in the seventh. With two outs and Alvarez on first, Kaui hit a double just inside the first-base line and Anderson doubled to left-center to score both runners. Willamette sophomore Kenna Davis induced a pop up back to the circle to close out her complete-game win. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Lewis & Clark's 19 wins this season are the third-most in program history. Their winning record (.500) is just the eighth time the Pios have finished .500 or above in program history. 
• Anderson closes out her sophomore campaign as the single-season program record holder in RBI (52 – nine more than the previous record) and total bases (99 – 12 more than the previous record). She also finished the season with the fifth-highest batting average in program history (.409), second most home runs (13) and sixth-most hits (47). 
•  As a team, the 2023 team set the program record for most runs scored (209), most hit by pitches (35), most stolen bases (67-76) and tied for the program record with four saves. 
• Alvarez tied Chris Kreger ('96 season) for the most hit by pitches in a single-season with 11. 
•  The Pios finished the year tied for third in program history for a single-season in batting average (.295), second in doubles (58), third in home runs (29), second in total bases (455), second in slugging percentage (.444), second in hits (302), second in RBI (176), third in walks (97), second in shutouts (four) and third in strikeouts by a pitching staff (150). 
• Gildersleeve's third home run of the season put her into a tie with former teammate Olivia Brackin ('22) for most home runs in program history with 26. 
• Lewis & Clark used all six of their pitchers in a doubleheader for the first time this season.  

WHAT'S NEXT 
 
Softball is expected to return 21 of their 25 players for next season including three of their top four pitchers and 12 of their top 13 hitters (in total at-bats).