Rain Washes Out Second Day of Division II Softball Finals

MIDLAND, Mich. —  Good pitching, solid fielding and hot hitting are usually the three ingredients needed to win a national softball title, but endurance might become a big factor in this year’s NCAA Division II championships at Midland Currie Stadium.

Rain forced the postponement of the three games scheduled for Saturday. Thus, four games--five if necessary--are scheduled for today.

Bloomsburg (Pa.) University was leading Missouri Southern State, 4-2, with two out in the bottom of the third inning in the first game Saturday when the contest was suspended.

That game will be concluded today, starting at noon, and will be followed by a game between Cal State Northridge and Cal State Bakersfield at 1:15.

At 3:15, the winner of Bloomsburg-Missouri Southern State will play the loser of the Northridge-Bakersfield game, and at 6, the winner of that game will play the winner of the Northridge-Bakersfield contest in the championship round.

If necessary, a second championship game will be played at 7:30.

Debbie Dickmann (27-7, 0.60 earned-run average) will start for Northridge against Bakersfield, and, if the Lady Matadors defeat the Roadrunners, she probably will start again in the championship at 6.

If Northridge loses to Bakersfield, the Lady Matadors would have to win three games in a row to win the double-elimination tournament.

In that scenario, Northridge Coach Gary Torgeson would most likely start sophomore Heather Lindstrom (14-6, 1.44 ERA) in the semifinal game at 3:15, and, in the event of a Northridge victory, come back with Dickmann in the first championship game.

Should the Lady Matadors win that game, they would play again at 7:30, and junior De Dow (8-5, 1.01 ERA) might be called upon.

“If we have to play more than two games (Sunday,) Heather will definitely throw,” Torgeson said. “I was thinking very seriously of throwing her today if we had had to play a second game. . . . I can’t expect Debbie to throw three games.”

All of this is based on the assumption that the field will be playable today.

As of 10:40 p.m. EDT Saturday, rain was still falling and wasn’t supposed to abate until early this morning.

On top of that, no tarpaulins were used to protect the field at Currie Stadium.