D-III Softball Playoffs: Linfield Plays 'Catball', Beats HSU

Wildcats ace Brittany Miller picked up the win to improve to 17-3.

Meredith Brunette went 3 for 3 with 4 RBIs for Linfield. Photo: Linfield Athletics

PINEVILLE, La. - The Linfield Wildcats began their run in the NCAA Playoffs with an 9-1 win over Hardin-Simmons in both teams' first-round game at the West Regional, hosted by Louisiana College.

Linfield (36-5) moves on to play Redlands at 4:00 PM (CDT) Friday while Hardin-Simmons plays Trinity at noon in an elimination game.

The Wildcats got things going early when their leadoff batter Stephanie Rice singled, stole second, stole third, and scored on a RBI double by Meredith Brunette.

Amanda Attleberger added two more runs with a two-RBI single. Brunette, who hit her 16th double of the season, finished the game a perfect 3-for-3with a run scored and four RBIs.

The Wildcats added two more in the second after Jenny Marshall delivered an RBI groundout. Brunette singled, then score on a homer by Erica Hancock, her school-record 11th of the season.

In the fourth, Linfield kept its offense in attack mode, scoring two more runs. One came on a Brunette sacrifice fly. The other run was on an RBI single by Jena Loop.

Brunette closed out the game for Linfield with an RBI single which invoked the eight-run rule in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Arin Spence (19-6) took the loss for the Cowgirls (29-15). Spence allowed nine runs, seven earned, on 14 hits.

Wildcats ace Brittany Miller picked up the win to improve to 17-3. Miller allowed only one run on four hits over the six-inning complete game. She also had seven strikeouts.

Linfield, which entered the tournament as the nation’s top hitting team, pounded 14 hits in the game. Rice went 3 for 3 with four runs scored, and Loop went 2 for 3 with a double.

“We have a lot of confidence in our hitting up and down the lineup,” said Hancock. “We have a lot of experience and we like to feed off one another.”

It wasn’t an accident Linfield did the kind of damage it did on Spence, a first team West Region all-star.

“Our team just came in and played ‘Catball,’ just focusing on each out and each inning,” said Meredith Brunette. “We want to have quality at-bats every time.”

Despite the lopsided score, Wildcats coach Jackson Vaughan tipped his hat to the Cowgirls.

“We knew Hardin-Simmons was a good team,” he said. “They just won their conference tournament. But I’m not necessarily surprised we played so well. When your 1 through 7 hitters are all hitting over .390, the odds are good you’re going to score some runs.

“We played just about as well as we could as a team,” said Vaughan.

Now the ‘Cats must shift gears to take on Redlands, a team which inflicted Linfield’s most lopsided loss of the season, a 8-0 spanking in mid-March.

“Redlands doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses,” said Vaughan. “They do just about everything well. Trying to beat them is a great challenge for us because they are a very talented team.”

IN OTHER ACTION: Chapman outlasted Trinity 1-0 in 14 innings in the tournament's opening game. Redlands topped Mississippi College 8-3. Louisiana College was to meet Chapman in the day's late game.

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