Garner, who was the freshman and player of the year last season, will be pitching at the NCAA Division I level after signing with Troy University, the same school that former Chadron State College softball coach Jim Webb is now an assistant.
Voci will continue her playing days at Adams State in Alamosa, Colo. Adams State is a member of the RMAC conference.
Both softball players are excited to be continuing their softball careers. Garner is expected to be the Trojans No. 2 hurler next season.
“It is a good program and I think it is the best place to continue my softball career,” Garner said. “They already have a No. 1 pitcher, who has been there since she was a freshman. I will be their No. 2 going in.”
Garner has had a sterling tw0-year career at WNCC, where she will practically hold every WNCC pitching record. In two seasons, Garner has a 44-10-3 pitching record, while fanning 428 batters. Garner had a career earned run average of 1.90.
Last season, Garner helped the Cougars to the national tournament, while collecting a 31-4 record as a freshman and fanning 259 batters, a single-season WNCC record. Garner was also named the freshman and player of the year for Region IX.
“I think I had a good two years here,” the Regina, Saskatchewan, pitcher said. “I had had a lot of success and there has been a lot of competition. Hopefully, I can learn from this and bring it to Troy and see even better competition and get even better. I will definitely miss playing here.”
Garner had a lot of schools that were interested in her talents, but decided on the southern school located in Troy, Alabama. She is excited for the opportunity to pitch at the Division I level. She said that coming here for two years has prepared her for that next level.
“I think it will be really tough. I will have to get better and work hard,” she said. “I don’t think if I went to a four-year school right off the bat I would have been ready for it mentally or as a pitcher at all.”
Voci, who came to WNCC from Colorado Springs, Colo., said she decided on Adams State because it is close to home.
“I decided to go to Adams State because I played for coach Dervin Taylor [head coach] before and their program is really good, plus it is close to home.’
Voci has appeared in 87 games as a Cougar and in two seasons with 39 runs scored. Last season, Voci smashed seven home runs, which was third on the team. For her career, she has eight doubles and eight home runs.
Garner and Voci were key members on last year’s Region IX championship team and have a career record of 81-25. Last season WNCC was 54-10 and this year they are 27-15.
“It felt really good to go to nationals as freshman because all that hard work actually came to success and it paid off in the long run,” Voci said. “It was just a great feeling to win Region IX, especially beating Otero 6-0.”
Garner added, ““It was an eye-opener coming to college and going to nationals our first year here. I just think that we saw really good ball and it showed us how good we can be.”
Garner and Voci are just two of three players back from last year’s Region IX championship team and are now looked upon as leaders. Garner said it is a different role, but they learned what needs to be done by last year’s sophomores, who set the precedence for future players.
“When we were freshmen, we looked up to our sophomore class like we wanted to be as good as they were,” Garner said. “If everyone does that when they come in as freshmen and try to be as good as the sophomores, I think it will keep getting better and the sophomores will just keep setting the precedence.”
Voci said that what helped her the most was getting pushed to be a winner.
“I am going to miss most is how all of us girls are coming together and just how coach pushes us when she knows when we can be better.
The Cougars finished the home portion of their schedule last Saturday and both Garner and Voci were instrumental in getting wins against Trinidad State. Garner picked up both pitching wins, striking out 16, including 10 batters in the first-game, and then striking out six batter while facing just nine batters in the second game.
No comments:
Post a Comment