Panthers Lost in Schade’s Shadow

Kelly Schade of Simpson College set an NCAA Division III softball record by pitching her 25th shutout of the season, a 6-0 victory over Chapman in the championship game Monday at Wisconsin Eau Claire.

Chapman had to settle for second best again.

The Panthers have advanced to the championship game four of the last five years, winning in 1995 and finishing second three times.

Schade (37-3), pitching her third game of the tournament against Chapman, struck out only three and walked three but gave up only three hits, all singles.

“The hits weren’t coming the way they had been,” Chapman second baseman Amie Barnes said.

On Saturday, Schade, a senior All-American who led the nation in strikeouts in the regular season, knocked Chapman into the losers’ bracket with a four-hit, 2-1 victory. But the Panthers bounced back Sunday by beating Alma (Mich.), 3-1, then got to Schade for five hits in a 5-2 victory over Simpson (47-4-1) of Indianola, Iowa.

But all that work to force Monday’s championship game appeared to exhaust the Panthers (35-10), who stranded six runners.

“We just didn’t really hit it when we needed to,” senior first baseman Stephanie Carew said. “We didn’t hit her like we had been hitting her.”

Carew, one of five Chapman players on the all-tournament team, finished the season as the Division III leader in slugging percentage and batting average.

Chapman pitcher Linsey Buendia (17-5) was bothered by a pulled groin muscle and lasted 4 2/3 innings before giving way to Tiffany Hoskins. Buendia gave up seven hits and four runs, two of them earned.

“She pitched on her heart alone for the innings she could,” Chapman Coach Janet Lloyd said. “She couldn’t throw a screwball because of a pulled groin, so she had to live on her curve.”

Lloyd took the loss in stride.

“Our goal is to be back here next year,” she said. “But next year I’ll be interviewed after we win it.”

Leading 2-0, Simpson scored two unearned runs in the fifth inning, then added two more runs in the sixth off Hoskins, who surrendered three hits in the inning.

Barnes, Buendia, Chrissy Lake and Molly Beckett also were named to the all-tournament team.