NEWBERG, Ore. – Southpaw Claire Velaski threw a no-hitter in the first game and the No. 1-ranked Linfield College Wildcats hammered out 29 hits at the plate, including five home runs, en route to a 12-0, 11-0 Northwest Conference softball sweep of the George Fox University Bruins Saturday afternoon here at Morse Field.

Velaski (3-0) struck out 10, including the side in the second, and walked three in the five-inning opener.  The loss went to Bruin starter Erin Hento (4-1), who allowed eight hits and eight runs, six earned, in 3.2 innings, with two strikeouts and one walk.

The two hurlers matched zeros for two innings before the Linfield bats broke loose.  A three-run homer in the third by Emilee Lepp snapped the scoreless deadlock, and the Wildcats added five more in the fourth and four in the fifth.  The visitors used three hits, three walks, and two George Fox errors to manufacture their runs in the fourth, and Staci Doucette slugged a three-run homer, her fourth of the season, to highlight the fifth.

Lepp had three of the Wildcats' 13 hits in the first game, also doubling and knocking in four runs with three runs scored.  Kayla Hubrich and Jaydee Baxter each had two hits, Hubrich scoring three times and Baxter twice.

Linfield scored in every inning but the fifth in the nightcap, backing starter Lauren Harvey (3-0), who threw four innings of three-hit ball, and Elise Karsig, who finished up with an inning of one-hit relief.  Harvey fanned seven and walked one, while Karsig struck out two.  Allyssa DenDekker (1-4) took the setback for the Bruins, allowing 14 of the Wildcats' 16 hits in 4.0 innings and all 11 runs.

The Wildcats got on the board in the top of the first with an RBI single by Baxter and a two-run shot by Karleigh Prestianni, her first of the season.  Doucette's three-run double capped a four-run rally in the second, and Ashley Garcia doubled in a run in the third that made it 8-0.  Lepp hit a solo homer, her fourth of the season, in the fourth, and Emilee Keagbine added a two-run blast, her fourth, later in the inning.

Hubrich, Baxter, Doucette, Keagbine, and Alex Hartmann had two hits each for the Wildcats, Doucette driving in three.  George Fox did not get its first hit of the day until one out in the third, when Kahlee Barrio singled to left.  Becka Doyle, Kayla Ward, and Felicia Chavez had the Bruins' other hits in the game.

NEXT: George Fox (5-7, NWC 0-2) hosts Pacific University while Linfield (6-0, NWC 6-0) visits Lewis & Clark College Sunday, both doubleheaders starting at 12:00 noon.