BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Trine University softball team will serve as the No. 3 seed at the upcoming finals of the 2025 NCAA Division III Softball Championship which will be hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill. Their first game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT / 7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 29.

The eight team finals begin for everyone on Thursday, with four games throughout the day. Bracket play will be double elimination and will run until Sunday, June 1 with the two remaining teams facing in a best of three series running from Tuesday, June 3 through Wednesday, June 4.

Tickets will be available for purchase at the venue, with either cash or credit card. You can purchase an all-session pass online. More information on ticketing, including pricing and online purchase, can be found at the event's Tournament Central.

The Finals will be broadcast for free by the NCAA with the stream available online in the NCAA Championships Pass. Live Stats will be provided by Illinois Wesleyan and can be found on their website.

The Thunder will open competition with a game against sixth seeded University of Redlands, who are making their first trip to the finals as a program. This has been a postseason of firsts for the Bulldogs, winning their first Regional Championship and their first Super Regional Title. They enter the week with a 39-9 overall record having won the Sothern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) regular season title with a record of 18-3.

The team boasts a strong offensive presence predicated on a high team batting average, 26^th in the nation. They are eighth in the country with 301 RBIs, ninth with 88 doubles and tenth with 451 hits. The effort is a team one, with none of their individual athletes cracking the top-25 in offensive stats Katlyn Gandara and Leila Jackson are tied at 46^th with 44 RBIs this season while Paige Messeniehner leads the team with 62 hits, 44^th in the nation.

The team is dangerous on the base path with a pair of runners sitting top-25 in the nation in steals. Messeniehner is 22^nd while Brooklyn Bard sits at 14^th with 41 swipes.

Gandara is a two-way threat, serving as the staff's ace in addition to her hitting prowess. She leads the team with a 1.85 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. She owns a 14-3 record and has added two saves. Two more pitchers sit in the two's for ERA with Paige Ellinger taking the second most innings and sitting at 2.02 while Kaylen Galaviz has made 16 appearances with a 2.92 mark.

Trine enters the weekend with a 41-5 record, having swept their way through both the regional and super regional round. It is the sixth time the team has reached the finals of the tournament and the third time in the last four seasons. They are just under two years removed from winning their first national championship at the conclusion of the 2023 season.

The Thunder also boast a nationally powerful offense. They are second in the country with 65 home runs, 345 RBIs and a .608 slugging percentage, fourth with a .448 on-base percentage and ninth with a .364 batting average. Debbie Hill and Tyra Marcum sit fourth and fifth in the country individual with 19 and 17 home runs respectively. Hill also comes in at sixth with 62 RBIs.

The team's pitching is anchored by one of the best in the country. Alexis Michon leads the nation in strikeouts to walk ratio (46.00) and WHIP (0.53), is second with just 3.54 hits allowed per game and 0.20 walks per game, and fourth with a 0.79 ERA. Hill is a solid second option for the team with a 3.73 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. Lauren Clausen has been the main reliever for the Thunder and sits with a 2.35 ERA of her own.

With a win on Thursday, Trine would advance to the winners' side of the bracket and would face either two seeded Rowan University or seventh seeded Texas Lutheran University. The game will produce their opponent in case of a loss as well.