REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Softball team earned the top seed and will host the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Tournament Friday-Saturday, May 10-12 at The Field of Dreams.
Tournament Information (Link)
Live Stats (All Games against Redlands, all other games use the link from Chapman or Cal Lutheran)
Video (All Games)
Tickets (Game 1 | Game 2 | Other games)
-Tickets cost $10 online and cash only onsite. SCIAC students, faculty and staff with institutional ID, and children under 12 are free.
Apparel purchase link here.
Schedule
The tournament is double elimination with two teams being eliminated on Saturday. On Sunday the lone undefeated team will play the remaining team with one loss. If the one loss team wins game one they will play a winner take all second game. If not, the undefeated team is the champion if they win the first game.
SCIAC Standings (Link)
The University of Redlands, Chapman University, and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) finished in a three-way tie for the second-straight season sharing the 2024 SCIAC Regular-Season Title, but unlike last season, they won the tiebreaker after winning both series 2-1. California Lutheran University made it in by winning the series with Redlands to end the regular season.
SCIAC Tournament History
This is the 16th SCIAC Tournament and the 12th appearance for the Bulldogs. That is the second most to CMS' 14 appearances. The Maroon and Grey have won 26 games (26-15), tied with CMS for the most and nine ahead of the University of La Verne (ULV). The University of Redlands has four championships, the second most, and six runners-up finishes, which is the most.
Head-to-Head
This season the Bulldogs finished 5-4 against the three postseason teams. They went 3-1 at home with all of their match-ups coming in the last month.
No. 1 Redlands (29-11, 15-6 SCIAC)
The Bulldogs led the conference in scoring with 136 runs, 39 more than second place CMS, in their 21 SCIAC games. They hit .316, second highest to Chapman's .318. They stole 68 bases, 32 more than ULV. Their 35 extra-base hits are the fifth most.
In the circle they have a 2.99 earned run average (ERA), while throwing a conference-low 135.2 innings thanks to eight games where the run-rule came into play, going 7-1 in those contests. They were especially strong in limiting batters reaching base without a hit as they walked 29 batters, the second fewest, had seven hit batters, tied for the fewest, and they were the only team not to have a wild pitch.
Defensively Redlands posted a .945 fielding percentage, the second lowest, turned 13 double plays, which led the conference and caught a SCIAC-high nine runners attempting to steal.
Katlyn Gandara (Whittier, CA) was named the SCIAC Athlete of the Year and 1st Team All-SCIAC, Natalie Horton (Palmdale, CA) made the 1st Team and Paige Messenlehner (Fresno, CA) was on the 2nd Team.
Gandara was the team leader in innings thrown (65.1), wins (9), saves (3), batting average (.475), on-base percentage (.520), hits (29), and runs batted in (25).
No. 2 Chapman University (24-12, 15-6 SCIAC)
The Panthers were 9-5 in road games this season and 5-2 in neutral site contests.
They led SCIAC with a .318 average, fifth in runs scored with 93, fourth in extra-base hits with 38, reached base at the third highest rate at .372, and are tied for fifth with 14 stolen bases.
In the circle they had a league-low 2.15 ERA, had the fewest walks conceded at 22, and allowed the lowest opponents batting average at .235.
On defense the Panthers were middle of the pack with a fielding percentage of .959 (5th). They tied for the fewest double plays with two and caught six runners stealing, tied for second most.
Pitcher Rose Malen and center fielder Miranda Murphy both made 1st Team All-SCIAC and Jillian Kelly, Iliana Serna, and Jordan Westerfield made the 2nd Team.
No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (24-12, 15-6 SCIAC)
The Athenas posted an 8-4 road record and a 4-1 neutral site mark.
They ranked second in runs scored with 97, fourth in average at .306, fourth with a .356 on-base percentage, sixth in extra-base hits with 33, and fourth with 19 stolen bases.
In the circle they had a 2.74 ERA, the second lowest, walked 45 batters, the fourth most, and allowed the second lowest opponent average at .268.
In the field they were third in fielding percentage at .964. Their 11 double plays turned were second to Redlands. They allowed base runners to successfully steal 90.9 percent of the time.
CMS tied Chapman with five All-SCIAC members. Pitcher Jade Johnson, Rachel Sapirstein, Giselle Lai, and Emma Suh all made the 1st Team. Destiny Garcia was on the 2nd Team.
No. 4 California Lutheran University (14-17, 11-10)
The Regals finished 7-6 on the road and 2-2 in neutral site games.
CLU scored 82 runs, sixth most, hit .268, sixth highest, reached base at a .321 clip, second lowest, hit 47 extra-base hits, third most, and stole 14 bases, tied for fifth.
In the circle their 3.31 ERA is the fourth lowest, they walked 51 batters, fourth most, and allowed the fourth lowest opponent batting average at .272.
Their .963 fielding percentage is the fourth best, five double plays turned, third fewest, and allowed an .865 stolen base percentage.
CLU had the SCIAC Pitcher of the Year in Ashlyn Flinchum and the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year led by Debby Day. Flinchum was joined by Nadia Collins in center field on the All-SCIAC 1st Team. Jessica Waters was on the 2nd Team at first base.
The winner of the SCIAC Tournament will earn the conference's automatic qualifying bid into the NCAA Division III National Championships with the selections for the entire field being made on Monday, May 13.
