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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The defending NCAA Division III national champion Linfield Wildcats will return to the final round of the 2012 tournament after a 6-2 victory over Illinois Wesleyan to win the Bloomington, Ill., Regional on Sunday (May 13).

The Wildcats improved to 42-5 and will play next on Friday (May 18) at 11 a.m. against the winner of Monday's game between Ohio Northern and Trine in the Alma, Mich., regional.

Freshman leftfielder Audra James, junior shortstop Courtney Martin and sophomore pitcher Molly McCready were named to the all-regional team from Illinois Wesleyan.

After the Titans left the bases loaded in the first inning without scoring, Linfield scored two in the top of the second on just one hit.

First baseman Staci Doucette walked and was pinch run for by Kate Hasty. Third baseman Karleigh Prestianni then tripled off the right field fence to score Hasty. Junior lefthander Alyssa Vorel then relieved starter Molly McCready for Illinois Wesleyan. Kristin Herren pinch ran for Prestianni. After Vorel got Ashley Garcia to pop up to the first baseman, Katy Brosig walked and was run for by Megan Wallo. Herren came home on an unsuccessful steal attempt by Brosig, who was caught in a rundown.

Doucette hammered a ball deep over the leftfield fence to stake the Wildcats to a 3-0 lead in the top of the fourth.

With one out in the fifth, leftfielder Grace Middelstadt walked and centerfielder Jaydee Baxter was hit by a pitch. Catcher Emilee Lepp hit a towering homer to deep centerfield that plated three runs to give Linfield a 6-0 lead.

IWU's lone runs came in the seventh when junior centerfielder Keri Leach homered for the second time on Sunday with Audra James on base.

Karina Paavola was the winning pitcher as she went 6 1/3 innings in relief of starter Lauran Harvey. Paavola struck out eight and allowed five hits with two runs.

The losing hurler was sophomore Molly McCready (18-5), who lasted an inning and allowed two runs on a hit and a walk. Junior Alyssa Vorel pitched the remaining six frames and allowed four runs on five hits with four strikeouts and three walks.

NOTES: McCready finished the season with 203 strikeouts, eclipsing Christy Engel's single season school record of 198 set in 2009. Her 10.15 strikeouts per seven innings is a season record as his the .138 opponent batting average against her...James had a hit in her final at bat to give her a .486 average, tops in an IWU season. The old mark was .480 by Monica Urban in 2008. If James had not gotten a hit in that final at bat she would have slipped to .476 and not bested Urban's record...Leach finished with 47 RBI, second most in an IWU season behind 54 from Jenny Miller in 1994. Leach's eight homers is tied for fifth most in an IWU season...Junior third baseman Emma Clark tied her own school season record with 10 home runs and has 20 in her career, one short of tying the school career record of 21 held by Valerie Hackett (2007-10). Clark had her 10 homers in her first 91 at bats this spring and didn't hit any in 49 at bats after April 15...The 39 team victories tied the school record set in 2001 when the Titans were 39-14...Team season records were set for runs batted in (240) and most walks allowed by pitchers (121).