And, for Groves and the WNCC softball team, that is a good thing heading into the Region IX tournament this weekend. WNCC, 40-16 and No. 16 in the NJCAA national polls, will look to defend their Region IX title from last year at Trinidad, Colo., Friday through Sunday. WNCC will open up with Otero Junior College at 4 p.m. Friday.
“We need to stay focused and come out ready to play and ready to win,” Groves, the freshman from Bluffdale, Utah, said. “We have to come out wanting to win. Sometimes we come out a little flat and if we do that, I don’t think we will do much. We have to be fired up and ready to go because other teams are aiming for us because the girls last year brought home a title, so we have the big X on our back this year.”
The other match-ups at the regional tournament include Trinidad State Junior College facing Dawson Community College Friday at 2 p.m., with the winner facing Lamar Community College at 6 p.m. The championship is slated for Sunday at noon. Groves said Lamar is the team to beat since the Runnin’ Lopes have beaten the Cougars 3 of 4 games.
“Their pitchers don’t throw a lot of pitches, but they are slow enough that sometimes they catch us off guard a little,” she said. “We’ve struggled with their pitching in the past, but I think we are more ready for them now. We have seen them four times and we are a little bit more determined to do what we need to do.”
Groves sees a resemblance from her senior year at Bingham High to her first at the collegiate level. In high school, her team won the state title with a squad that had a lot of youth. Groves also stepped up to the plate and helped deliver the state title for her high school, hitting eight home runs in eight games, including going 11-for-11 in the last three games at state with a grand slam and three home runs. This year’s team is very symbolic to that high school team.
“It was intense [winning that state championship] and a feeling that you can’t explain. We came out and did what we needed to do,” she said. “We weren’t expected to win it. We came out with a young pitcher and a young team, and all of a sudden, our seniors started producing and our young players started pushing our seniors and we got a state championship. I can’t really explain the feeling.”
Groves has definitely continued that hitting explosion at WNCC this past season where she tied a school record for home run with 15, and is the team leader in triples (3), runs scored (71), runs batted in (72), walks (29), while batting .517. She is also among the leaders in several national categories, including No. 8 in batting average, No. 7 in RBI leaders and 15th in home runs.
In fact, she is flabbergasted with the type of season that she is having.
“I am very competitive and it is surprising that I am doing this well,” she said. “I did not expect to come in here my freshman year and have the year that I had. I did not expect any of it. I did not expect our team to do what we have done so far. I didn’t expect myself to do what I have done, but I have worked hard and set goals and most of them have been accomplished.”
Groves’ remarkable season picked up in April when she was named the NJCAA player of the week a couple of weeks ago. She also had a big 7th inning solo home run against Otero Junior College that gave the Cougars a 3-2 win at Volunteer Field.
Last week against Southeast Community College, Groves had an unbelievable day when she went 11-for-11 in a doubleheader. What was different about that performance was in the opening game she was 6-for-6 with six singles. In the second game, she was 5-for-5 with three doubles and a home run.
“I guess I just got sick of going to first and needed more exercise on the day,” ,” Groves said about the 11-for-11 performance. “Singles and doubles scores runs either way.”
Groves actually doesn’t go up o the plate looking for a home run, it just naturally comes.
“I don’t know how I hit the home runs,” she said. “You could ask me what I do different in the swing and I couldn’t tell you. It is just how you connect with the ball and your timing. It just happens. You see it, you hit it, and somehow it goes.”
While Groves is having a break-out season, the team is enjoying plenty of success. After starting the season 1-5 after the opening tournament the end of January, the Cougars have 20 of 21 wins. The Cougars are now batting .348 as a team with 48 home runs, 98 doubles and 11 triples. And, it is just not one person that is providing the power. The last 10 games saw the power come from the Cougar’s three pitchers, Kelsey Garner, Casey Simpson and Stephanie Townsend. The three have combined for 17 home runs of the team’s 45 hit this season. Last week, the threesome had 11 home runs in 10 games.
Simpson hit five jacks, including two each in separate games, while Townsend had four home runs and Garner two. Garner leads the pitchers with home runs with eight. The team leader in home runs is Groves with 15, and Groves had three in the last 10 games. She also had a slugging percentage of 1,300 last week.
Nothing Groves does should surprise anyone. Groves was born with a glove on her hand, starting to play the sport when she was six years old on a 10-under team.\
“I think it is just the rush to play softball and it is hard to explain,” she said. “It is a game with girls that you become family with, and you get to spend time with them every day. The team, the players and the competitiveness makes the sport fun.
“I actually started playing because I wanted to be better than my sister (Kim] and she quit when I started playing. Honestly, I don’t know if I am better than her because she quit playing before she gave herself an honest chance.”
Softball is something she wants to continue as long as she can.
“I want to keep playing as far as they will let me take it,” she said. “I want to play past WNCC whether that it is DI or DII and whatever is best for me educationally. If they let me go past that, that would be cool. But you have to stay realistic at the same time.”
Groves is one of those players that will do anything and play everywhere to help the team. When she came here in the fall, she was expecting to play third base, but instead she started the season at shortstop and moved around the horn, playing second base and now is at first base.
“Since I came here and I will fill any roll that they need me to fill. It doesn’t matter. I am doing whatever I need to for the team. I like wherever they need me to play,” she said. “I just like to go out and focus on one job, one thing, get my job done and help the team.”
What would make for the perfect icing on a stellar season would be a trip to the national tournament in her home state May 14-16 in St. George, Utah.
“I would love to go to St. George and play [or the national title],” she said. “That would be awesome. I could see my entire family and have the people that can’t travel out here to come down there because it is three hours from where I live.”
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