Wash-U Moves into Title Game with Win Over Linfield

Bears Score Early, Survive Sloppy Contest

May 20, 2007  -  Box Score

SALEM, Va. --- Washington University-St. Louis (35-5) scored all six of its runs in the first four innings of play on its way to a 6-3 victory over Linfield College (42-7) in the winners’ bracket semifinals of the 2007 NCAA Division III Softball Championship.  Washington U. earns a spot in Monday’s national title game at 2:30 p.m.  Linfield slides down to the losers’ bracket semifinal for a noon showdown with UW-Eau Claire for a shot to join the Bears in the championship game.

Washington University and Linfield combined for six errors in the game, uncharacteristic of either squad.  Four of the miscues went against Linfield, but resulted in only one unearned run.  The Wildcats did get to Wash-U starter Laurel Sagartz for three runs (one earned), the first tallies she had allowed in three starts in the tournament.

The Bears jumped on the board with a two-out run in the first inning.  Jamie Kressel, who hit the game-winning homer in the eighth inning the night before against UW-Eau Claire, doubled to center field.  She came home on the next play, a single by Sagartz.

Washington University tacked on three more in the third inning.  Laura D’Andrea walked and stole second before coming home on Kressel’s second two-bagger.  Two batters later, catcher Lindsay Cavarra knocked her second homer in as many days to give the Bears a 4-0 advantage.

A Linfield error helped Washington U. to two more runs in the fourth.  With one down, Karli Stander reached on an error by the pitcher and moved over to third on a double by Carter Malouf.  Samanthan Van Noy relieved Wildcats’ starter Brittany Miller, but the change didn’t affect D’Andrea as she knocked a two-run double to left to extend the Bears’ lead to 6-0.

“I thought we really came out to play ball today,” explained Washington University head coach Leticia Pineda-Boutte.  “It was more like our team today. We made some adjustments early on and we stuck to our game plan. Linfield is a great team and we tried to hold them to the one big inning, and I thought we were pretty successful at that by scoring some runs in the beginning.”

Linfield came back with three runs in the bottom of that frame.  Jenny Marshall led off with a single back to the mound, and moved to second two batters later on a base hit to left by Jena Loop.  The bases were loaded when Sagartz hit Amanda Attleberger with a pitch, but the Bears’ started seemed about to get out of it after striking out Erica Hancock.  Lisa Smith changed that thought with a single past the shortstop to score one run, but the groundball went right through the left fielder to allow the other two runners to score to cut the Bears’ edge to 6-3.  The Linfield threat ended with a pop-up by Candice Fujino, and the Wildcats would get no closer through the final three innings.

Sagartz picked up her third win of the tournament.  She threw seven complete innings, allowing three runs, one earned, on five hits.  She walked won and struck out four.  Linfield started Brittany Miller had previously thrown a pair of shutouts in the tournament.  The Bears tagged her for six runs, five earned, on nine hits in 3.1 innings of work.  She struck out four and walked one.  Van Noy was strong in relief, giving up two hits and two walks while fanning four in 3.2 innings in the circle.