The Western Nebraska Community College softball team has never swept Otero Junior College in the history of the program. Sunday the Cougars made history by registering a 4-2 and then a 12-2 five-inning win against the Rattlers to push the team’s record to 36-6 on the season.
The wins not only made history for the Cougar program, more importantly, it gave WNCC a two game lead in the conference standings and the leg up in hosting the Region IX tournament in May.
“These wins are huge,” second-game winning pitcher Ashley Patton said. “In order for us to bring the regional tournament here, we had to sweep them and I think we sent a message. These wins are big and we are very excited.”
The Cougars haven’t wrapped up hosting the regional tournament just yet. Currently, the are setting atop the regional standings with an 18-1 record followed by Otero Junior College at 21-3. Otero is finished with conference play, while the Cougars have five more conference games left -- four with North Platte and one with Lamar.
“I think we have been trying to prove ourselves all year what kind of team that we are and hopefully someone will recognize that we can go out and play with anybody,” WNCC coach Maria Winn-Ratliff said. “Otero is a great program with great tradition. I thought the girls showed up and they were ready to play.
“Obviously, it puts us in a good position in Region IX, but we still have five big games to play. North Platte and Lamar will claw and fight juyt like everybody else in the league. We really want to host this tournament to give back to our community and we want to show them how good we think we are “
But the way the Cougars played Sunday definitely showed just how good of a ball team they are. WNCC pounded out 19 hits and scored 16 runs in the wins, while holding a potent Otero lineup to just four runs and 13 hits.
“Defensively, we made a couple of mistakes but I thought we overcame them and we never got down,” Winn-Ratlliff said. “Offensively, we got big hits from everybody. Kelsey Garner and Ashley Patton’s jobs in the circle were amazing. We can’t be disappointed with what happened in the circle. I am extremely proud.”
In the opening game, Garner struck out six and scattered six hits in picking upp her 21st win of the season. But it was also great defense that helped the Cougars pick up the win as the WNCC defense only had two innings where they faced five or more Rattler batters.
WNCC, in the meantime, had their bats come alive and it all started in the third inning as Mandy Pounds reached base on a slap single. She later scored on a Jessie McNabb single for the 1-0 lead.
WNCC went up 2-0 in the fourth inning as Kara Ryman led off by stroking a double. Then, with two outs, Pounds registered another slap single to put runners in scoring position. Lauren Mills responded with a single to leftfield that scored Ryman and Pounds for the 3-0 lead.
The Cougars plated a fourth run in the fifth. Lauren Bourdon stroked a one-out double and scored later on a throwing error for the 4-0 lead.
WNCC couldn’t hold the shutout as Otero plated two runs on three hits and ann error in the sixth inning to cut the lead in half. But, Garner and the Cougar defense put the Rattlers to rest in the sixth and seventh innings for the win.
Pounds, Bourdon and McNabb each finished with two hits for the Cougars. Pounds was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
WNCC continued pounding the ball in the second game, while getting an excellent pitching performance from Patton. Patton, scattered seven hits, while striking out one. But, it was the defense behind the sophomore right-hander that came up big, turning two double plays.
In fact, it was the double play in the fourth inning that turned the tide for the Cougars. Otero just scored its second run of the game and had the bases loaded with one out. Patton then snared a shoe-top line drive and the doubled off the runner at third for the final out of the game.
While the defense was sparkling, the offense was just as sharp. WNCC scored three times in the first and third innings. In the first, Bourdon unleashed a 2-run scoring triple to open up the scoring. Bourdon then came around to score on a Ryman single for a 3-1 lead.
The Cougars went up 6-1 in the third as Amanda Hensley, McNabb and Bourdon each had singles to load the bases. Bourdon’s, in fact, was a clutch bunt single as the sophomore was just trying to sacrifice runners and ended up safely at first after the ball died on the field with no attempted throw.
Ryman then ripped a shot back to the circle that put bounced off Stacey Ortiz’s hand for the first run of the game. After a pitching change, Amanda Torimaru rocketed a shot off the left field fence to score the sixth run of the game.
WNCC put the game away in the fourth inning when they plated six runs. Amanda Hensley started the inning with a single followed by run-scoring doubles by Bourdon and Ryman. Then, with two outs, the Patton, Lauryn Smith and Pounds all earned walks to force in another run. Mills then added three more runs to the scoreboard with a triple to put WNCC up 12-2.
Bourdon and Ryman each collected three hits in the game. Bourdon was a home run shy of the cycle, collecting a single, double, triple three RBIs and three runs scored. Ryman had two singles, a double, three RBIs and a run scored.
McNabb and Hensley also tallied two hits each. Hensley went 2-for-3 with three runs scored, while McNabb went 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
Winn-Ratliff said that it is nice that the offense was on track against a good Otero pitching staff.
“We just wanted to control the counts the best that we could. [Jessie} Lessard is very good when she gets ahead in the count and hard to beat and Ortiz gave us problem the last time we played them,” she said. “I thought we made good adjustments and made her bring the ball over the plate. We just kept finding ways to win.
Winn-Ratliff said that the team’s offense has really came alive in the last four games, where they pounded out 42 hits in the weekend games against Trinidad and Otero.
“We have been struggling and the last four games we decided to swing the bats like we know how and score runs,” she said. “We came up with some great bunts when we needed to. We just want to keep putting as many runs on the board that we can and contain the other teams.”
WNCC has five more conference games left including doubleheaders with North Platte Thursday on the road and then April 24 at home, and a one-game match-up with Lamar Community College on April 22.
“It was all a team effort,” Patton said. “We have a great pitching staff and it is amazing with the defense that we have. We are going to stay focused [for the other conference games] and take it one game at a time.”
First Game
Otero 000 002 0 -- 2 6 1
WNCC 001 210 x -- 4 7 2
WP -- Garner; 2B -- Bourdon, Ryman.
Second Game
Otero 100 10 -- 2 7 0
WNCC 303 6x -- 12 12 1
WP -- Patton; 2B -- Bourdon, Ryman, Torimaru; 3B -- Bourdon, Mills.
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