They certainly did that in thundering fashion this past weekend at the Region IX Tournament at Volunteer Field as the Cougar players definitely can say that now after blanking Otero Junior College 6-0 in the Region IX championship game to give the college and the community another Region IX title. WNCC, 54-8, will now compete at the national tournament in Plant City, Fla., March 15-17, after capturing the regional title.
“This is really exciting,” fourth-year head coach Maria Winn-Ratliff said. “I woke up this morning and told the kids that this is a great day to be a champion. We worked our rears off all year to get here. Don’t be excited to just be here, go out and finish the job. We wanted to win it in three and we did. This is a great group and I couldn’t be any more proud of them.”
The regional championship is the first for the Cougar softball team after back-to-back runner-up finishes the last two years. This win definitely is sweet not only for the coach, but the players as well.
“This group is very special. To win 54 ball games is something that I don’t’ think we envisioned have being that good,” Winn-Ratliff said. “We have a saying ‘2008 national champions, get used to it.’ We have saying it all year and we hope that is the fourth piece of our puzzle. We just look forward going out every day doing what we have been doing all year long and hopefully to bring a national championship home.”
The championship game didn’t start out as a offensively slugfest, as the two Region IX powers hooked up in a defensive struggle. Winn-Ratliff was a little worried, at least for a couple innings.
“When we started, I got a little nervous,” she said. “Kelsey wasn’t getting the calls we got [Saturday night]. She seemed a little uncomfortable, but we found a way to contain them. For us, I knew eventually we were going to score, it was just when and how many. Once we put one across, I felt real comfortable. I thought which ever team scored first would come out with the victory.”
It was the defense early on that really sparked the Cougars. WNCC’s Kara Ryman turned a double play in the first inning to stop Otero from scoring first. Then, in the second inning, Region IX’s Freshman and Overall Player of the Year Kelsey Garner struck out two and got another out on a weak grounder back to the circle to stop another threat.
But, as well as the Cougar defense was playing, the Otero defense was also sparkling. In the third, after Whittany Foster singled and Mandy Pounds beat out a bunt, the Rattlers settled down and starting pitcher Jessie Lessard got the next three Cougar batters to fly out.
WNCC finally broke the scoreless game in the fourth inning with one run. Lauren Bourdon smacked a lead-off double and came around to score on a Kara Ryman groundout for a 1-0 lead.
The Cougars added to the lead in the fifth inning, plating four more runs on four hits. Foster led off by reaching on an error followed by Pounds beating out another bunt. Lauren Mills drilled a double to score one run followed by Jessie McNabb scoring two runs with other double. McNabb came around to score on a Ryman hit that the shortstop booted for the 5-0 lead.
WNCC added an insurance run in the sixth when pinch hitter Kayli Allen singled. Then, pinch runner Alec Voci scored on ground ball by Pounds to make the score 6-0.
In the seventh, the drama started to build for the Cougars as they neared their first regional championship since the team started 2001. Garner quickly put down the first two Rattler batters with her eighth and ninth strikeouts of the night. Garner then walked Kelsey Fuentes to slow down the anticipation of celebration a bit.
The Cougars finally got the third out as Amber Ray popped up a 2-2 pitch to Amanda Torimaru to seal the win.
"There was a lot of pressure [on that last out]. I knew that if I dropped it wouldn’t be the end. But I am glad I caught it because making the last out was very unbelievable,” Torimaru said. “[Winning regionals] was a goal for us for a really long time. This team in the end came together. I knew we could do it. It is the greatest feeling.”
Garner picked up her third win of the tournament, throwing a 2-hitter, while striking out nine. She also walked five in the game.
“I can’t explain how much this win means,” the freshman flamethrower from Regina, Saskatchewan, said. “Our defense was awesome today. They had my back the whole game, which is definitely all you can ask for.”
Offensively, the Cougars were just as sparkling, finishing the game with 10 hits. Four Cougars finished with multiple hits, including 2-for-3 performances from Mills, McNabb, Bourdon and Pounds.
Otero’s Lessard took the pitching loss, striking out three and walking none. Lessard and Noel Wees collected Otero’s only hits of the contest.
“This is a huge victory for us,” Ryman said. “The sophomores worked for this for two years and it finally happened. I hope the freshmen carry it on next year.”
Winn-Ratliff said the 10 sophomores were one of the big reasons for the Cougars’ success this year.
“It will be more hard to replace them as people then as players. They are phenomenal people and that is what made them such great players,” she said. “They came in here and I called them my average joes. They are a phenomenal group of young ladies and our freshmen group has big shoes to fill to come in and be leaders.
“We are trying to build a tradition here and we think we are starting to get there. We want to make winning a habit and when we can do it every day and do the little things right, that is our main goal. We want to have Cougar Pride. I couldn’t be more proud of the group. I hope we do well in Florida.”
Otero (43-14) 000 000 0 – 0 2 3
WNCC (54-8) 000 141 x – 4 10 1
WP – Garner, LP – Lessard; 2B – WNCC (Mills, McNabb, Bourdon).
1 comment:
Great Job Coach Winn and the WNCC Softball team on your Regional Champs this year.
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