SULLIVAN — Linn won four of five games at the Peoples Bank Back to School Softball Classic on Friday and Saturday, closing its opening week with a 5-2 record.

The Lady Cats defeated Liberty 6-4, Webster Groves 6-2, Chaffee 3-2, and Neosho 16-1. Their lone tournament loss came 6-5 to Logan-Rogersville on a walk-off hit.

“Our defense was phenomenal all weekend, our pitching only got better, and we had timely hitting,” Linn coach Jason Dudenhoeffer said. “We did a lot of small things correctly to win some ballgames.”

Those details included six sacrifice bunts and a sacrifice fly as the Lady Cats consistently advanced runners and produced runs without relying solely on hits.

Kenzy Hackmann and Elli Dudenhoeffer were named to the All-Tournament team. Hackmann led Linn with nine hits in 15 at-bats and scored eight runs across the five games. Dudenhoeffer went 6-for-14 with eight RBIs.

Anna Peters earned two victories in the circle and allowed only two earned runs across 12 2/3 innings. Emma Starke earned two complete-game victories.

Linn opened the tournament with three runs in the first inning against Liberty and never trailed in a 6-4 victory. Dudenhoeffer went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs, while Hackmann finished 2-for-2 and scored twice. Starke allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits over six innings.

The Lady Cats broke a scoreless tie against Webster Groves with three runs in the third inning and added three in the fourth. Hackmann went 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI, and Peters allowed two runs, one earned, on six hits while striking out four over five innings.

Linn trailed Logan-Rogersville 3-1 entering the sixth inning but scored four runs in the top half to take a 5-3 lead. Logan-Rogersville answered with three unearned runs in the bottom of the inning and won on Courtney Batey’s walk-off single.

The Lady Cats outhit Logan-Rogersville 9-5. Heslie Higginbotham went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, and Paige Senevey was 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Linn returned Saturday and edged Chaffee 3-2. With the tournament time limit sending the game into an international tiebreaker, Chaffee began the seventh inning with a runner on second and no outs. The Lady Cats prevented the runner from scoring before Starke delivered a walk-off single in the bottom half.

“That was one of the most intense, fun games I’ve ever seen,” Dudenhoeffer said. “The defense was phenomenal on both sides, and the pitching was great.”

Starke and Ava Voss collected two hits apiece. Starke also pitched all seven innings, allowing two runs on eight hits.

The Lady Cats completed the tournament with a 16-1 victory against Neosho, scoring 14 runs in the fifth inning to end the game. Senevey singled and tripled during the outburst and finished with two hits and three RBIs. Peters doubled home two runs, while Dudenhoeffer drove in three.

Hackmann, Peters, Starke, and Senevey had two hits apiece. Peters allowed one run on four hits over five innings.