Luther High School's softball team, which set a single-season program record with its 16th win in Saturday's doubleheader sweep of Onalaska High School, will open the Division 3 playoffs Tuesday in hopes of advancing to its first WIAA sectional.

Luther earned the top seed and will host the winner of Thursday's Westby at Melrose-Mindoro game (after the Community Life deadline) Tuesday at 5 p.m. at LHS. The Knights needed to go to extra innings to beat Westby 2-1 May 8, while Mel-Min was 11-3 after Monday's Dairyland Conference win over Cochrane-Fountain City. The Mustangs are led by junior pitcher Alyssa Baumer.

The top seeds on the opposite side of the bracket are Aquinas and Brookwood. Brookwood features a strong battery with seniors Anna Flood at pitcher and Allie Johnson at catcher.

Flood was last season's Scenic Bluffs Player of the Year. The Knights beat Brookwood 7-4 in a regional semifinal a year ago, getting a complete-game three-hitter from Courtney Hoeg.

“Flock is better than last year,” LHS head coach Mark Ross said. “They also had a fairly young team last year, so they should be a pretty similar group.”

Hoeg set two records in Saturday's twinbill, with a single-game record three doubles and single-season record 13th win in a 10-0 victory in the nightcap. Hoeg earned her 14th win of the season in Monday's 11-1, six-inning win at West Salem.

Monday's win allowed Luther to finish league play 10-2, with their only losses coming at 2007 Division 3 state runner-up Arcadia. Luther's previous-best conference win total and league finish came a year ago in a 9-5 Coulee mark, which was good for third.

“I didn't fully expect it, but I thought we had some sort of a shot to be this good in the league,” Ross said. “Unfortunately we didn't play well at Arcadia that day.”

The Knights offense and its rotated band of heroes stopped with Leisha Brueggeman Monday. The junior scored had three hits and scored three times, including a two-run triple in a three-run sixth.

“Courtney was hot, so we moved her up in the lineup today,” Ross said after Monday's game. “Whoever's been in the seven spot for us has hit.

“I have a lot of confidence in all of our top seven hitters. It's been different hitters on different nights for us having the big games.

“Amy (Dobrunz) has had big games and Rachel (Niemi) has been real steady. And we've got a lot of kids like Courtney, Krista (Hoeg), Leisha and Brianna (Ekhoff) that have hit in bunches.”

Dobrunz also earned the win in Saturday's opener, a 2-1 decision. The right-hander pitched around seven hits and four walks in the first six innings, but allowed just one earned run with five strikeouts.

Hoeg struck out the first two batters she faced in the seventh, before getting a comebacker to complete a save. Junior Amber Abts was the other half of the LHS battery.

“Amy was pretty consistent and she battled well,” Ross said. ‘She's always give you her best whether's she in the circle or behind the plate.”

La Crosse Tribune sports editor Jeff Brown contributed to this article.