Medford Oregon —Kayla Tindall pitched a two-hitter in leading Northwestern College to a 4-2 win over #15 St.Francis (Ill.) in the first game of the Southern Oregon Bracket of the NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round played Monday afternoon in Medford, Ore.
The win propels the Red Raiders into a winner’s bracket game on Tuesday, May 15 at 11am (CST) against top-seed and No.8 Southern Oregon. Northwestern improves to 36-11 on the year, matching the 2006 team for the sixth most wins on program history.
Tindall earned her team-leading 18th win of the season, improving to 18-6, in pitching her 21st complete game of the season. She held down the high-scoring St.Francis offense to two hits and one earned run while striking out seven. Tindall has 433 strikeouts for her career, second most all-time in program history.
Northwestern totaled eight hits and pushed four runs across in the fifth inning to break up a scoreless game. Emma Schnell led off with a single and was lifted for a courtesy runner, Renee Choquette, who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Katie Elliott. Madison Beaver followed with a single, advancing Choquette to third, and both runners came around to score after a safety squeeze by Amanda Everhart and throwing error by St.Francis. Jessica Sandbulte and Emily Bosch came through with RBI doubles later in the inning to put the Red Raiders in front 4-0.
St.Francis scored a run in both the sixth and seventh innings on a solo home run by Jensen Tchorzynski and sac fly by Katelyn Rolniak.
Beaver and Sandbulte totaled two hits each for Head Coach Chris Nachtigall’s squad. Four players, Everhart, Tindall, Bosch and Schnell, had one hit each.
Morghan Dieringer (22-3) lost for just the third time in 25 decisions, giving up all eight hits and four runs while striking out eight. The Fighting Saints will play Simpson (Calif.) in an elimination game on Tuesday.
