Friday, May 03, 2013

WNCC softball team looking for fourth straight regional title


                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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