The University of Redlands and Trine University were scheduled to play for the NCAA Division III softball national championship on Wednesday of this week at the James I. Moyer Complex in Salem.
Redlands, from California, needed just one win on Wednesday to wrap up the championship. The Bulldogs defeated Trine in the first game of a best-of-three on Tuesday morning, 11-3. Wednesday’s championship was scheduled for 11 am, and if Trine was able to even the series another game would be played Wednesday afternoon to decide the champion.
Redlands was 46-6 on the season after defeating Simpson College on Sunday morning to earn a spot in the championship series, then defeating Trine on Tuesday. Trine made their second consecutive trip to the final, and fourth in the past five years, after defeating Belhaven, 5-2, on Sunday. The Thunder fell to 41-7 after Tuesday’s loss.
Virginia Wesleyan of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference was 50-0 coming into the tournament but lost their first two games and was eliminated. The Marlins lost the first game of the tournament last Thursday morning to Rowan of New Jersey, 3-2. Virginia Wesleyan didn’t have a hit until the sixth inning, then rallied for two in the bottom of the seventh but left the potential tying run on base. VWU was then eliminated by Linfield University of Oregon, also by a score of 3-2.
