The pride of Twin Cedars high school, Central College softball freshman Rylee Dunkin delivered the game winning hit as the 25th-ranked Dutch surprised number one Linfield 4-2 in 11 innings Thursday in a game heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

The heavily favored Wildcats broke a scoreless tie with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the fourth inning of the first game of the best-of-three NCAA Division III Super Regional matchup in McMinville, Oregon. Central answered right back with a two-run homer by junior second baseman Haley Bach in the top of the fifth, and the score remained 2-1 before Linfield tied the game with a one-out solo homerun in the seventh.

It stayed that way until the 11th, when Dunkin came up with the bases loaded and two outs, delivering a two-run single to right to give Central the lead for good.

“My approach at the beginning definitely wasn’t the best”, Dukin said. “She’s a great pitcher and she made me look like a fool my first couple of at bats. I had the mindset that I wasn’t going to let her beat me again, so I just stayed in the moment. One thing that Coach (Wares) and the whole team have been telling me all year is to shorten up, and today I finally listened to that and took that into consideration. I found my pitch and just went with it.”

Dunkin was 1-4, but also drew two walks, reaching base in three of six plate appearances against Linfield ace Tayah Kelley, the front-runner for National Pitcher of the Year honors.

Central outhit the high octane Linfield offense 9-6, handing the Wildcats just their second loss of the season. Central improves to 33-11, while Linfield is 46-2.

Game two of the series is this afternoon at 3:30 Iowa time, and the third game would be played immediately following, if necessary. The winner will advance to next week’s national tournament in Marshall, Texas. You can hear live coverage of all the action with Trevor Castle and Kara Huisman on 92.1 KRLS.

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