Linfield softball begins bid Thursday to win school’s third NCAA D3 national championship

Linfield shortstop Katrina Johns celebrates with teammates after the Wildcats won the super regional, earning the team a berth in the NCAA Division III Softball Championship. (J.J. Anderson)
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Linfield aims for its third softball national title when the Wildcats open play Thursday in the NCAA Division III Championship in Marshall, Tex.

Linfield (46-4) is one of eight teams in the double-elimination tournament, which is divided in two four-team pods. The winner of each pod plays in a best-of-three series June 6-7 for the championship.

Linfield, which beat Bethel (Minn.) in a super regional, to earn an NCAA championship tourney berth, won the D-III title in 2007 and 2011. This is the Wildcats first national tournament appearance since 2015.

Linfield, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, play No. 7 Coe (Ia.) at 2 p.m. Thursday in their first game (live stream). Other teams in Linfield’s pod are No. 6 Rowan (N.J.) and No. 3 Trine (Ind.). If Linfield wins Thursday, it’ll face the Trine-Rowan winner at 4:30 p.m. Friday. Lose, and the Wildcats play the Rowan-Trine loser at 11:30 a.m. Friday.

The four-team pod continues play through Sunday until a champion emerges.

The four teams in the opposite bracket are No. 1 Salisbury (Md.), No. 4 Christian Newport (Va.), No. 5 Berry (Ga.) and No. 8 Moravian (Pa.).

First game in the best-of-three championship series is 9 a.m. Tuesday. Game 2 is 9 a.m. Wednesday, and a Game 3, if necessary, follows at 11:30 a.m.

--Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel

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