D-III Softball Playoffs: Linfield Wins West Regional Crown

Redlands won two of three previous meetings between the two programs this season, including a 3-1 win Friday that sent Linfield into the loser’s bracket.

Photo: Linfield Athletics

PINEVILLE, La. - Fueled a barrage of home runs, Linfield emphatically punched its ticket to the NCAA Division III championship finals, defeating archrival Redlands twice, 4-1 and 17-1, on Mother’s Day to capture a second consecutive West Regional crown.

Redlands (30-12) entered Sunday’s regional championship needing to win just once, but the Wildcats (40-6) pounded six home runs and 24 hits, including five homers in the first three innings of the nightcap, to claim the title and one of eight berths to next week’s NCAA finals in Salem, Va.

Redlands won two of three previous meetings between the two programs this season, including a 3-1 win Friday that sent Linfield into the loser’s bracket.

LINFIELD 17, REDLANDS 1, 5 INNINGS

Meredith Brunette (Jr., Beaverton, Ore.) homered twice, including a two-run blast in the first inning that put Linfield front 2-0 before the game was even five minutes old. Amanda Attleberger followed up Brunette’s homer with a two-run shot of her own, and the Wildcats added one more in the inning on Candace Fujino’s sacrifice RBI.

Brunette hit her second homer in the second inning, and Jena Loop (Sr., The Dalles, Ore.) pounded her ninth home run of the year moments later and the rout was on.

The third inning featured eight more Linfield runs, as the Wildcats battered Redlands pitching for seven more hits. Erica Hancock (Jr., Boardman, Ore.) hit her 13th homer of the season to score three more runs.

Rice and Brunette each went 3 for 5 to lead the offensive assault.

Brittany Miller (Soph., Port Orchard, Wash.), who pitched the distance of both games Sunday, was the winner, tying a school record with her 20th win of the season.

LINFIELD 4, REDLANDS 1

The first game was much closer, but Linfield still led from wire to wire, building a 4-0 lead before the Bulldogs cut the final margin to three in the seventh.

Hancock homered in the second inning off Bulldogs all-star Katie Brnca, then the Wildcats added two more runs in the fifth following a Redlands fielding error and a double from Hancock. Jenny Marshall (Jr., Sherwood, Ore.) provided the final run with a sacrifice RBI in the sixth

Miller held the SCIAC champion Bulldogs to five hits with three strikeouts and no walks.

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports