Redlands Regional - Tournament Central
For the 10th-consecutive season, the University of Redlands softball team will be playing in the NCAA Championships, having received an At-Large bid to the NCAA Championships on Monday morning. The NCAA announced that Redlands will serve as the host site for a three-team regional on Friday and Saturday, with Linfield College (OR) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges competing as the other two teams at the regional.
Fans may follow all of Friday and Saturday's action from afar through live stats which is available and free of charge to all users. The U of R is currently working towards a solution to tentatively provide streaming, which would also be free of charge. Live stats will not begin until the start of each game, while the live video stream (if available) will become active 15 minutes prior to the start of each contest. All games will be played on the campus of the University of Redlands at the Softball "Field of Dreams".
Admission to these contests is $5 for adults, $3 for students and senior citizens, $2 for children aged 3-12, and children ages two and under receive free admission.
This year's NCAA Championships includes 62 teams vying for the coveted Division III Softball Title. 14 different regional sites are comprised with four teams, while Redlands serves as one of two sites with three teams. The U of R received one of 19 at-large bids based on the breadth of its work during the 2014 campaign, while Linfield and CMS both garnered entrance into the NCAA Championships by winning their respective conference postseason tournaments.
View the entire Division III bracket here.
Seeding for this three-team regional is: No. 1 Linfield, No. 2 Redlands, and No. 3 CMS.
Friday's game schedule is as follows:
Game 1: No. 1 Linfield vs. No. 3 CMS at 11 a.m.
Game 2: No. 2 Redlands vs. No. 3 CMS at 1:30 p.m.
Game 3: No. 1 Linfield vs. No. 2 Redlands at 4 p.m.
Saturday's game schedule will be determined by Friday's results.
Redlands (30-13) enters the NCAA Championships after winning its 10th-consecutive Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) regular-season title. Leading the way at the plate for the Bulldogs has been sophomore outfielder AJ Carrasco (Whittier, CA) with a .496 batting average and 58 hits, while senior center-fielder Amanda Lievanos (Anaheim, CA) has racked up a team-leading 10 homeruns to go along with 40 RBI and a .449 batting average. In addition, sophomore shortstop Vicki King (Thousand Oaks, CA) has totaled 52 RBI and 13 doubles, both team-best marks. From the circle, senior pitcher Kaitlyn Hooper (Riverside, CA) registered a team-best 20 wins during the season and a 1.91 ERA with 12 complete games to her name.
CMS (28-13) advances to the NCAA Championships after capturing the SCIAC Postseason Tournament Championship this past weekend, receiving the automatic bid in the process. Tara Robinson owns a team-best batting average of .449 for the Athenas to go with 61 hits and 24 stolen bases. Additionally, Katie Savard provides the power at the plate with a team-leading 37 RBI, 51 hits, and a .411 batting average. In the circle, Haley Schultz is 14-5 on the year with 16 complete games, a 1.05 ERA, and 76 strikeouts. Kaylilani Minami also provides solid innings for the Athenas with an 11-6 record and a 2.20 ERA.
Linfield (34-7), a familiar regional foe, returns to the NCAA Championships after winning the Northwest Conference regular-season title and the conference postseason tournament championship. Leading the way for the Wildcats at the plate during the current season is Katy Brosig with a .440 batting average and 55 hits. Ashley Garcia provides Linfield with the pop at the plate, smacking five homeruns and racking up 48 RBI to go along with 52 hits. Linfield's top pitcher is Karina Paavola, who has accumulated a 19-3 overall record while going the distance 11 times. She also owns a 1.14 ERA. Additionally, Shelby VandeBergh has a 1.56 ERA with an 11-3 record for the season.
During the 2014 campaign, Redlands and CMS have played seven times already, with the Bulldogs winning five of those contests. Neither the Bulldogs nor the Athenas have faced Linfield this season.
The winner of this three-team, double-elimination tournament will move onto the 2014 NCAA Division III Super Regional Championships and will face the winner of the Texas-Tyler three-team regional, with the games being played at the highest remaining seed.
For additional information on the 2014 NCAA Division III Softball Championships, please visit the NCAA website.
