The
Western Nebraska Community College softball team will be looking for their forth
straight Region IX title when they begin play in the regional tournament on
Thursday in McCook.
The
19th-ranked Cougars enter the tournament with a balmy record at 52-8 and a
12-game winning streak. More importantly, though, the Cougars hold the No. 1
seed in the tournament, which could come into play on Sunday.
WNCC
opens play Thursday at 6 p.m. against the winner of Lamar Community College and
McCook Community College. If the Cougars win, they won't play again until
Friday at 6 p.m.
Sophomore
Mariah Shepherd said the team is ready for regionals, but at same time, they
have to be ready to play or they can get beat by any number of the Region IX
teams.
"We
just need to play as a team," Shepherd said. "If we don't play our A
game and do what we know how to do, then they [Lamar and McCook] will fight
back. So, we definitely have to give them our best game."
This
regional tournament has a different flare to it. The tournament consists of a
first round and a second round. The first round is comprised of two 3-team
pools that play a double elimination tournament. The winners of the two pools
will then play each other in a 2-out-of-3 series at the home of the higher seed
on Sunday, May 6, which be Volunteer Field if they come out of their pool in
the next few days.
Another
added twist to the tournament involves a district playoff. The Region IX winner
will not qualify directly to the national tournament in St. George, Utah, but
instead host the winner of Region 6, the Kansas region, in a 2-out-of-3 series
beginning May 9 with the winner advancing to the national tournament.
The
Cougars enter the tournament playing well both offensively and defensively.
WNCC boasts a .389 team batting average and has already set the season record
for home runs with 87 round trippers. Sophomores Bianca Duran and Kasey Cash
lead the home run charge with 21 each, followed by freshman Jennifer Cottle
with 12.
WNCC
has 11 players batting over .300 and five that are hitting at a .390 clip or
better. Duran leads the team with a .544 batting average followed by Cash at
.435, Danielle Hearn at .411, Melanie Rowson at .400, and Cottle at .392. Right
behind them, though, comes Angel Council at ..276, Kayla Romey at .375, Shelby
McGraw at .262, Shepherd at .248, Lindsey Shiels-Brophy at ..333, Haley Paxton
at .320.
WNCC
head coach Maria Winn-Ratliff said the team compliments each other nicely on
the offensive end.
"They
just do a great job complimenting each other and communicating with each other.
They take some pressure off our coaching staff because they talk to each
other," she said. "When they come in other players will talk to them
like get your front side down, back sure your back hand is up, things like
that.
"That
has really helped us. We just tell them to stay within themselves and home runs
are other pitchers' mistakes. [This weekend] it was windy and we were just
trying to flatten out our swings and hit some line drives and take advantage of
miscues. That is something they have done a really nice job on. I feel like
from top to bottom, all 16 of them, they do what we need them to do day in and
day out, whether that is is putting a bunt down, hitting behind a runner,
hitting a fly ball to score a run, or hitting a home run."
Defensively,
the Cougars are also solid. So far they have turned 23 double plays and have registered
six shutouts in the last nine games. The pitching staff of Duran, McGraw and
RaVae Herrera have a combined 2.00 earned run average and have struck out 268
batters. Duran leads the way with a NJCAA leading 33 wins from the circle to
just one defeat. She has struck out 164 and sports an ERA of 1.12.
The
Cougars, who have already notched many individual and team records, are nearing
a record that has stood since 2008, that of most wins in a season. The previous
best season is 54-10 and just three wins at regionals will give them the mark.
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