GREENCASTLE, Ind. - Blair Hall drove in five and Hannah Gore earned the final 10 outs in the circle as No. 10 Berry defeated No. 7 DePauw, 11-2, in the first game of the NCAA Division III Softball Regional Friday afternoon.

"That was just really exciting," said Berry head coach Emily Stanley. "From the very beginning, our offense was rolling and doing really well. We stuck to our plan [at the plate]. Our pitchers did great. We've talked all year about using that staff approach, so it was really exciting to see it all come together and for everyone to buy in."

Hall started the game in the circle for the Vikings and helped her own cause before she threw her first pitch. With the bases loaded and two out in the first, the sophomore sent a single back up the middle to plate the opening two runs of the game.

"Today, I was really watching the ball and just trying to make contact and just put it in play as much as possible," said Hall. "That was the goal today to just move runners and play Berry Softball as Coach Stanley says."

An inning later, the Vikings stretched the lead to 5-0. The first of three hits on the day from Katie White was a single back up the middle to score Sydney Moroney for a 3-0 lead. The margin went to four one batter later when Riley Jackson plated Aleeya Thornton on a sacrifice fly to center. Anna Jackson joined the RBI brigade one batter later when she singled into center, scoring White with the third run of the inning.

DePauw left five runners on base through the first two innings, and the Vikings made the Tigers pay for missing chances to maintain the pace in the third. With the bases loaded, White doubled all the way to the fence in left center, scoring Moroney, Thornton, and Abbey Gamble to make it 8-1.

The Tigers (34-10) scratched across a run in the bottom of the inning, but again left the bases loaded as Gore came in to pitch with two out and rung up a strikeout to end the inning.

The score rode at 8-2 until the sixth when Hall put the icing on the cake. With Morgan Frye and Shelby Daniel on base, Hall turned on the seventh pitch of the at-bat and rocketed it out over the fence in left-center to give the Vikings an 11-2 lead. Gore would retire the Tigers in order in the bottom of the inning to complete the run-rule victory.

Every Viking in the starting lineup had at least one hit, with the team piling up 14 total in addition to six walks. In addition to White's three hits, Frye, Hall, and Gamble each had a multi-hit game.

Berry moves into the winner's bracket portion of the regional with the victory and will next play Hiram College at 10 a.m. The Terriers defeated Piedmont, 4-1, in the first game of Friday's action in Greencastle.

"All the teams here are very strong teams," Coach Stanley said. "At this level, we're going to face the best of the best. There are 62 teams that are playing, and they're all going to be strong. But for us, all that matters is to play our game."