Defending Champs Stay Alive and Eliminate Chapman
May 9, 2008

TYLER, Texas – The defending NCAA Division III Softball National Champion Linfield College (38-5) withstood a fifth inning rally by Chapman to win their Tyler Regional Elimination Bracket game on Friday, 5-3. The loss eliminates Chapman from the tournament, which finishes their year at 27-11.

The game remained a scoreless tie for the first four innings of play. In the fifth inning, the flood gates opened, as both teams combined for a total of eight runs.

Linfield picked up five runs in the top of the fifth. Stephanie Rice was Linfield’s hero of the inning as she had two hits, one run and one RBI in the stanza. Rice finished the game by going 3-for-5

The Panthers attempted to answer in the bottom of the inning, getting three runs off of four hits to pull within two.

However, that would be as close as Chapman would get, as Linfield advanced with the 5-3 win.

Linfield pitcher Claire Velaski improved to 3-0 on the year by allowing three runs off of three hits over 4.1 innings. Velaski was followed in the circle by Kendra Strahm, who picked up her first save of the season.

Linfield will return to action at 6 p.m. on Friday to take on Texas-Tyler in another elimination game.

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