MARSHALL, Texas – An epic softball season for the Linfield Wildcats came to a premature close Sunday night at Jason Bell Park in the semifinals of the NCAA Division III Championship.
Linfield, the top-seed in the tournament and No. 1-ranked team in Division III, suffered two tough losses in the Texas heat, falling to sixth-seeded Belhaven (Miss.) 6-0 and 4-3.
Belhaven advances to the best-of-3 Division III Championship series where the Blazers face host East Texas Baptist. Game 1 is set for Tuesday at 11 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. PDT). Game 2 and Game 3, if necessary, are Wednesday, also starting at 11 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. PDT).
The record book will show that the 2024 Wildcats finished third among all Division III softball programs. Linfield posted an overall record of 50-4 in a season which saw the 'Cats win their first 44 straight contests, becoming just the second team in collegiate softball history to register an unbeaten regular season, and establish a new club record with 116 doubles.
The Wildcats notched 50 wins in a season for the second time in program history, coming within one victory of the national championship-winning 51-3 season recorded by the 2011 team.
Sunday's much-anticipated pitching battle of first team All-Americans
Tayah Kelley of Linfield and Kennedy Carruth of Belhaven was worth the price of admission.
Kelley pitched all 14 innings on the turf field in humid conditions. A fifth-year senior, she wraps up her Linfield career with 113 wins, three All-America citations and sits atop every major pitching statistical category in the Linfield record book.
Two other seniors – pitcher
Tyler Warden and catcher
Savannah Fitzgerald – also participated in their final games on Sunday.
GAME 1: Belhaven 6, Linfield 0
The opener began as a low-scoring pitchers' duel where perhaps a single run in the late innings would decide the game in the late innings.
Eventually, Belhaven's hitters touched up Kelley as Katie Jo Richardson and Allie Gordon clubbed matching three-run home runs while Carruth held the Linfield hitters at bay.
Belhaven did major damage in the fourth inning when Allie Gordon, a third team All-American, singled to left field to begin the frame and Ellie Jones drew a walk to put two runners aboard. Katie Jo Richardson then came to the plate and delivered a massive three-run blast to left field, dropping the Wildcats into a 3-0 deficit.
In the fifth, Gordon drew a walk and Carruth launched a ball deep to left field for what looked surely looked like to be an RBI triple. Gordon rounded third base and headed for home, but was tagged out by Wildcats catcher
Ashley Sutton just feet from the plate. Video review of the play confirmed the close call was correct.
Gordon delivered the knockout punch in top of the seventh when she teed off on a pitch from Kelley for another a three-run shot that put the Wildcats in a deep hole.
The game was a rematch of Linfield's season-opening game in which the Wildcats won 9-1 in five innings at the NFCA Leadoff Classic. The only other meeting between the two clubs occurred on the same field in 2022 and matched the same two pitchers in the NCAA Regionals, a game which Belhaven prevailed by a 5-3 count.
GAME 2: Belhaven 4, Linfield 3
The Blazers took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, when Richardson laced a double down the left-field line, scoring Jones and Carruth.
Claire Seats evened the score at 2 in the third inning with a double to the left-center field wall, plating Nelson and Saathoff.
Belhaven went in front 3-2, scoring on a bases-loaded wild pitch in the fourth. The Wildcats responded with
Jacey Leyvas's RBI single up the middle, bringing
Claire Seats home from third base.
In the bottom of the seventh, Kelley issued back-to-back walks to Colby Hollinger and Madi Miller, and Gordon zipped a single through the left-side of the infield to load the bases with no outs.
From there, Carruth lofted a sacrifice fly to center field, buying pinch runner Sarah Stockstil jusrt enough time to register the winning run.
Linfield outhit Belhaven 9-7.
Nelson went 2 for 3 and scored a pair of runs.
Claire Seats was 3 for 4, driving in two runs.
