TACOMA, Wash.—Junior Charlize Pope held host Pacific Lutheran to just one run over six innings in game two, to help Lewis & Clark College softball earn a doubleheader split with the Lutes on Saturday afternoon at the PLU Softball Field. 
 
THE BASICS
 
Pacific Lutheran 8, Lewis & Clark 1
Lewis & Clark 2, Pacific Lutheran 1
(Lewis & Clark 21-3, Northwest Conference 13-1) 
(Pacific Lutheran 14-8, NWC 4-6) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
After suffering their first conference loss of the season, Pope and fellow junior Maggie O'Leary limited the hosts to just four hits and juniors Tallulah Sickels and Megan Yanagi came up with big RBI in pinch-hit appearances. Sickels provided her first hit since her first season to tie the game and Yanagi recorded the go-ahead RBI ground out in her second at-bat of the season. 
 
Pope was spectacular after the Pioneers tied their season-high by giving up eight runs in game one. She scattered four hits and three walks to move 7-1 on the year. O'Leary worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning to post her program-record setting sixth career save. 
 
Junior Lacey Marglin led the Pioneers offensively on Saturday with three hits, a double, a hit by pitch and a run scored. 
 
GAME ONE RECAP 
 
Pacific Lutheran scored four runs in the third and fifth inning to hand the Pioneers their first conference loss of the Spring. The Pioneers got out to a 1-0 lead but saw the visitors score the final eight runs of the contest. 
 
Marglin posted two of Lewis & Clark's three hits in the contest. She went 2-3 with a double. 
 
Junior Emily Patton added the team's final hit. Junior Gina Ozuna worked a walk and scored the team's lone run and sophomore Makena Dahir drove in the lone run. 
 
Junior Maggie O'Leary suffered her second loss of the season after allowing six hits, four walks and four runs in 3.1 innings pitched. Sophomore Ryan Jurischk came on for the final 2.2 innings and was charged with four runs (three earned). 
 
Pacific Lutheran's Paige Wilson moved to 6-3 after scattering three hits, two walks and one run in a complete-game victory. 
 
The Pioneers took the lead in the top of the first inning. Ozuna led off the game with a walk and the visitors loaded the bases with one down on a Mari Alvarez hit by pitch and Sam Gildersleeve walk. Dahir opened the scoring with a sac fly to right field. 
 
After leaving a runner on in each of the first two innings, Pacific Lutheran struck for four runs in the third. With one out and one run already in, Kimara Blakely hit a three-run homer to give the hosts a 4-0 advantage. 
 
The Lutes added four more runs in the fifth on five hits and a pair of Pioneers errors. 
 
Marglin was in scoring position in the fourth and sixth innings but Lewis & Clark could not come up with a hit with a runner in scoring position. 
 
GAME TWO RECAP 
 
Pope outdueled PLU ace Rachael Rhinehart and Sickels and Yanagi proved to be the unlikely offensive heroes. 
 
Rhinehart threw a complete game and allowed seven hits, two walks and four strikeouts. 
 
Seven different Pioneers posted hits in the contest with Gildersleeve and Marglin finishing with a hit and run scored. 
 
Pacific Lutheran scored their ninth-consecutive run to start the game. Bri Sarae started the bottom of the first with a hit by pitch, moved to second on a wild pitch, took third on a ground out and scored on a Kamalani Doctor RBI double. The Pioneers got out of the inning with a double play when Marglin made a catch in right and threw out the runner. 
 
The Pioneers scored their two runs in the top of the fourth. With one down, Marglin, Gildersleeve and Caleigh Rosenbach all reached on infield singles to load the bases. Sickels stepped up for her second at-bat of the year and delivered an RBI single into left field to tie the game. Yanagi, who was only cleared to play ahead of Saturday's doubleheader, went down below the zone to knock a grounder to second to drive in Gildersleeve to make it 2-1.
 
Pacific Lutheran put runners at second and third with two down in the fifth but Pope struck out the next batter to end the jam. They had a leadoff runner in the sixth but Rosenbach threw out her second baserunner of the day trying to steal. 
 
O'Leary worked a perfect 1-2-3 inning in the seventh to close out the win. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• The Pioneers have won six of the past eight matchups against the Lutes dating back to last season. The two teams played twice in the NWC Tournament with Lewis & Clark earning wins of 8-3 and 8-7.
• O'Leary broke a tie with Alyssa Abe ('23) for the most saves in program history (six) in game two. 
• The Pioneers are one win shy of tying the 1990 team (22-13-1) for the second-most wins in program history. Last year's team set the program record with a 28-16 overall record. 
• Rosenbach earned her first start since her first season and threw out runners trying to steal in the second and sixth innings of game two. 
• Lewis & Clark's 13 conference wins are tied for their second-most in program history alongside the 2021 team (13-11). The Pioneers went 20-8 during the 2024 campaign. 
• Pope became the fifth pitcher in program history to reach 25 career wins in game two. 
• Sickels posted her first hit in over two years in game two. She snapped an 0-12 streak with her first hit since a pinch-hit single against Whitworth on April 8, 2023.  

WHO'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will look to win their fourth NWC series of the win on Sunday when the two teams return to PLU Field for games at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.