WNCC softball picks up two wins in final day of Fall Classic; tean will head to North Platte this week

The Western Nebraska Community College and Chadron State College softball teams finished the final day of the WNCC Fall Classic with two wins. Chadron State earned two shutouts downing Weber State 8-0 before blanking McCook Community College 6-0.

The WNCC women rebounded from two opening tournament losses to Weber State on Friday and Chadron State Saturday morning, to finish out the tournament with three wins. The Cougars started the win streak with a 14-4 win Saturday night and then claimed two wins on Sunday.

The Cougars started Sunday with a 10-1 win over the Air Force Academy and then blanked the University of Wyoming 11-0. Freshman outfielder Mandy Pounds said they played well despite mixing the freshmen and sophomores together..

“The played very well for this being our very first tournament together. Half of our team has never played together before and by the way we played this weekend you would never known,” the freshman outfielder from Colorado Springs said. “The positives of this weekend were we able to see the potential of the team and learn each others way of playing.”

The Cougars will next be in action this weekend when they head to a tournament in North Platte when they play three games on Saturday before bracket play on Sunday. Pounds said this weekend’s play should help when they play UNK, Barton County and Garden City Community College on Saturday.

“The outlook on next weekend’s game are to go in knowing we’re the best team, giving 110 percent and going the extra one degree,” she said. “We need to continue to improve on learning each other’s tendencies and styles while playing, such as who needs to be picked up when they are down.”

The Cougar women definitely received the opportunity of how to play together starting with Saturday night’s win against McCook. The Cougars erupted for 10 runs in the fourth inning to open up a close game. In that fourth inning, the Cougars scored 10 runs on 10 hits, including two hits each by freshmen Lauryn Smith, who had two run-scoring singles, and Kayli Allen, who had a two RBI single and a run-scoring double to open the inning.

WNCC continued the run support on Sunday by scoring 21 runs in two games. In the first game, the 10 runs were all scored from the bottom of the order. After being blanked in the first inning against Air Force, the Cougars put up four runs in the second inning. Kelsi Baldwin led things off by drawing a walk followed by an Alec Voci bunt single. Allen then scored a run by reaching base on an error. Pounds, Smith and Jessie McNabb each had RBIs in the second inning.

WNCC plated another three runs in the fourth inning. Voci led off with a double and she scored on a Pounds hit. Allen and Pounds scored the other two runs for the Cougars in the inning for a 7-0 lead.

WNCC added another three runs in the next inning. Voci and Kayla Hall scored on a Smith double to leftfield. Smith scored the final run on a Amanda Torimaru base hit for the 10-1 win.

Jessica Pexton picked up the win in the circle, going three innings andn allowing one run and two hits. Natasha Dypchey pitched the final two innings allowing one hit and two walks.

Sunday's game two was all WNCC as the Cougars pounded out 10 hits in scoring 11 runs in just four innings. WNCC got on the scoreboard first with a 6-run first inning. Smith, Pounds and Voci led off with base hits. Voci's was a run-scoring double to score the first run of the game. After that, the Cougars utilized two Wyoming errors and singles by Lauren Mills and Torimaru for the 6-0 lead.

WNCC added another four runs in the third inning. Torimaru and Allen each delivered singles, while Smith had a 2-run double.

Torimaru led the team with a 3-for-3 game, including two RBIs and two runs scored. Also collecting multiple hits were Smith going 2-for-3 with a double, and Allen going 2-for-3 with two singles and two RBIs.

Ashley Patton and Kelsey Garner combined on the shutout. Patton got the win pitching three strong iinnings and striking out four and walking one. Garner finished off the tournament pitching two innings, striking out three.

Chadron State was the only team to finish the tournament unbeaten with a dominating performance on Sunday. The Eagles opened the tournament with an 8-0 win over Weber State, a team that won the National Club tournament last year. In the game, Casey Williams was sizzling in the circle, allowing three hits and striking out eight. Chadron scored one run in the first inning and exploded for seven runs in the fifth for the win.

In the Eagles' game against McCook, Chadron State received a dazzling pitching performance from Cassie Humphrey. The Eagles just scrapped across runs throughout the contest. But, while the Eagle bats and pitchers were on, the defense was also stellar. In the sixth inning, McCook made a run to avoid the shutout. With one out and runners at second and third, leftfielder Sasha Catches made a diving catch and the McCook runners passed each other on their track back to the bases.