Linfield Headed to Texas to Begin Title Defense

Fresh from winning its fifth consecutive NWC title, Linfield earned the No. 4 seed in the West Regional.

Photo courtesy: Linfield Athletics

McMINNVILLE, Ore. - The Linfield Wildcats are headed to Tyler, Texas, to defend their NCAA Division III national championship starting Thursday.

Linfield, 36-4 this season, departs Tuesday for Texas to compete in the seven-team NCAA Division III West Regional, hosted by the the University of Texas at Tyler.

The NCAA selection committee announced the 59-team Division III playoff field Monday morning.

Also receiving automatic bids to the regional tournament are American Southwest Conference champion Louisiana College (39-5), ASC members Texas-Tyler (40-7) and Mary Hardin-Baylor (32-9). Also earning bids are Southern California Athletic Conference champion La Verne (27-17), SCIAC runner-up Redlands (34-10) and independent representative Chapman (27-9).

Fresh from winning its fifth consecutive NWC title, Linfield earned the No. 4 seed in the West Regional. The Wildcats face No. 5 seed Redlands at 10 a.m. local time in Thursday’s first-round game. The winner plays top-seeded Louisiana College (39-5) Thursday at 4 p.m.

No. 3 seed Mary Hardin-Baylor meets sixth-seeded Chapman and seventh-seeded La Verne opposes No. 2 seed Texas-Tyler in Thursday’s other opening-round matchups.

Linfield earned the berth to the regional tournament as the automatic qualifier from the NWC. The Wildcats won the conference by five games over runner-up Pacific.

The West Regional features five Top 25 teams. In the most recent National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, Louisiana College is ranked No. 2, Linfield is No. 4, and Redlands is No. 7, UT-Tyler is ranked ninth, and Chapman is No. 12.

Thirty-five conferences have been granted automatic qualification and six independents were selected for the 2008 championship. The 18 remaining teams were selected on an at-large basis from automatic qualifying conferences and the remaining independent institutions

Eight double-elimination tournaments are scheduled to begin Thursday on campus sites. Seven teams will compete at five first-round sites and eight teams will compete at three first-round sites. All first-round sites will use a double-elimination format.

First-round games Thursday are tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m., noon, 2 and 4 p.m. Game times remain the same as the tournament continues Friday and Saturday. The championship game is scheduled for Sunday at noon, and possibly 2 p.m., if the loser of that game suffers its first defeat.

The eight-team Division III championship finals, hosted by the Old Dominian Athletic Conference, will be held May 16-20 at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Va.

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