McMINNVILLE, OREGON—And to think that was only game one.
           
No. 24-ranked Central College (33-11) super-charged the NCAA Division III Softball Super Regional in Oregon Friday by surprising No. 1 Linfield University (Ore.), as well as many onlookers, with with an edge-of-your-seat 4-2, 11-inning thriller.
           
Freshman catcher Rylee Dunkin (Hamilton, Twin Cedars HS) rocketed a two-run, two-out single into right-center field to break a 2-2 tie in the 11th inning. Then reliever Morgan Schaben (5th-year, Portsmouth, Harlan HS) secured the final three outs, with the aid of an errorless Dutch defense.
           
It's only a step, but it's a memorable one in the best-of-three tourney. The teams come back Friday in a 1:30 p.m. (Pacific Time) clash at Del Smith Stadium. A Linfield win forces a deciding third game at 4 p.m., with a trip to the eight-team Division III finals in Marshall, Texas starting next Thursday hanging in the balance.
           
But regardless of Friday's outcome, both teams will long remember Thursday's 3-hour staredown.
           
"I've been in Division III my whole life and that's where I've wanted to be," NFCA Hall of Fame coach George Wares said after his program's 101st NCAA tournament victory. "I call it a big-time atmosphere and a small environment. That game was just as exciting as Alabama playing Tennessee. That was a classic softball game and the fans from both sides got treated to something really special."
           
It was only the second loss in 48 games for Linfield (46-2), which won an astounding 21 of its games via the eight-run mercy rule in racing through its season schedule. It also dropped Wildcats hurler Tayah Kelly, the frontrunner for Division III pitcher of the year honors, to 28-2. Kelly, who had walked just 37 hitters in 167.2 innings entering the contest, uncharacteristically issued eight free passes to the Dutch while still striking out 12. She threw all 11 innings, firing a staggering 196 high-octane pitches.
           
"We had not faced her and she's everything they said she was with her velocity," Wares said. "We were able to draw some walks and got some timely hits, obviously."
           
Central was actually just two outs away from pulling off the upset in seven innings. Clinging to a 2-1 lead in the seventh, Linfield finally unleased its power after pitcher Emma Beck (sophomore, Holland, Grundy Center HS) was able to keep it under wraps much of the night. But then shortstop Cydney Hess crushed the squad's 52nd home run of the season to tie the game. The Wildcats nearly ended it one batter later. but second baseman Brynn Nelson's shot down the left-field line was about a foot outside of the foul pole.
           
Enter Schaben. She did what she's done all season, get thrown into a tense situation and somehow wriggle free. After misfiring on her first anxious pitches and walking the next batter, Schaben was rescued when second baseman Haley Bach (junior, Council Bluffs, Lewis Central HS) made a bid to take away a potential game-winning hit on a bloop to short right field, dropped the ball, then fired back to the infield to start a double play as two Linfield runners had retreated to the bags. Schaben (8-1) then surrendered just one hit over the final 4.1 innings to go with two walks.
           
Beck, meanwhile, went 6.1 innings, allowing two runs on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts.
           
Central actually outhit the offensive juggernaut, 9-6, and had taken the early lead in the unlikeliest of ways, not through its traditional small-ball attack but on a two-run fifth-inning home run to right field by Bach. That was the first of her career and just the team's third home run of the season. The Dutch entered the game ranked 351st in Division III in that category.
           
"We don't hit home runs until we do," Wares said with a smile. "But we'll take it."
           
Bach had two hits for the Dutch as did center fielder Emma Johnson (5th-year, Davenport, Assumption HS) and designated player Hannah Higgins (sophomore, Macomb, Ill.) First baseman Megan Stuhr (senior, Sigourney) singled and walked three times.
           
Both teams saw scoring chances slip away and a big factor in keeping Dutch hopes alive again was their defense, particularly in center field with Johnson, who routinely turns extra-base hits into long outs. Central's outfielders made 14 putouts, including seven by Johnson, who ran down several sizzling line drives.
           
"She's an all-American who isn't an all-American," Wares said. "We've had a lot of good center fielders and she's right up there. If there was a stat for base hits taken away, she would be one of the leaders in the country. She bailed us out a lot with some really big-time catches."
           
Central's winning rally started in innocent fashion, with a two-out Johnson single roped to center field. Third baseman Franie Burnett (senior, Ankeny, Centennial HS) followed with a single and Stuhr walked to load the bases. That brought up Dunkin, who knocked home two runs with her first hit of the night.   The freshman had walked twice but was hitless in five earlier plate appearances.
           
"My approach at the beginning definitely wasn't the best," Dunkin said. "She's a great pitcher and she made me look like a fool in the first couple of at-bats. So I just stayed in the moment. Coach has been telling me all year to shorten up and finally today I listened and just found my pitch and went with it."
           
Any Central celebrations Friday were tempered by the fact that the same explosive Linfield squad awaits on Saturday, even more determined than before.
           
"That's a heck of a softball team," Wares said. "(Coach Jackson Vaughan) has done such a good job with that program and for us to be able to come back after they tied it in the seventh says a lot. But we know it's definitely not over. They're going to come back hard tomorrow."
           
Saturday's action is unlikely to mirror Friday's.
           
"They'll make adjustments and we're going to have to make adjustments," Wares said.
           
But Central's pitch-by-pitch approach won't waver.
           
"We said the same thing in the regional (last week) against Bethel," Wares said. "And we're playing a team better than Bethel on their home field. But it's the same thing. We've got to find a way to win the first inning and hopefully that leads to being a winning game."