Whits in D-III tournament

Everywhere Whitworth head softball coach Fuzzy Buckenberger turned, he heard the Pirates’ chances of receiving the school’s first at-large bid into the NCAA Division III tournament were slim and none.

So during finals week, Whitworth didn’t practice.

A phone call late Sunday put the Pirates back on the field Monday, as Whitworth (26-12, second place in the Northwest Conference) was given one of 18 at-large bids into the 57-team tournament.

Whitworth has the sixth seed in the seven-team, double-elimination bracket played at the University of Redlands (Calif.). The Pirates will open Thursday with the third-seeded hosts, the champions of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Which represents quite a turnaround from their bus trip back from McMinnville, Ore., over a week ago when the Pirates thought an 11-0 loss to Linfield in the regular-season finale that cost them the league title also cost them a postseason opportunity.

“That bus ride back was pretty quiet,” said Buckenberger, Whitworth’s first-year coach. “People felt down because we didn’t know about getting a berth or not. Now, everyone’s pretty excited to come to practice (Monday night). I mean, they’re always happy about coming to practice, but today’s going to be different.”

Buckenberger acknowledges the Pirates will need to knock off some rust in the next three days, but at the same time, it gave some tired bodies some much-needed rest.

“The best thing to do is to get some live hitting,” he said. “The pitchers have to work out, obviously, but we don’t want to overwork them.”

Also in the Redlands bracket is top-seeded Chapman (Calif.), which beat the Pirates 8-0 on March 22, and second-seeded Linfield, which split a four-game series with Whitworth to end the season.

Whitworth is led by pitcher Jo Sonnett (19-6, 1.96 ERA) and leadoff-hitting shortstop Heather Case (.416, .680 slugging, six homers).

Buckenberger also expects there to be some nerves for the young Pirates, as four of their top seven hitters are freshmen and Case is only a sophomore.

Still, this young group’s already made school history.

“They’re going to be a little jittery, I know that,” Buckenberger said. “As soon as the first play’s made, though, that will settle everybody down.”