WNCC softball to face Miami Dade College in first round of national tournament

The Western Nebraska Community College softball team road to a national title will not be an easy one after the pairings for the NJCAA national tournament in St. George, Utah, were released on Sunday.

The 20th-ranked Cougars, 43-19, earned the No. 14 seed in the tournament that starts Thursday. WNCC will open the tournament against second-ranked Miami Dade College (45-7-1) at 12:30 p.m. Miami Dade garnered the third seed in the tournament.

WNCC coach Maria Winn-Ratliff said that she doesn't know a lot about Miami Dade.

"I do not know a whole lot about them, but they have been very good all year long," she said. "We will just need to pitch well, attack pitches we can handle and minimize our mistakes."

Miami Dade enters the tournament having fallen to No. 2 seed Chipola College 14-0 in the Florida State Championship game last weekend. The Lady Sharks are 6-2-1 in their last nine contests having to beat Seminole State in the their regional tournament 7-6 and 6-1.

WNCC has been playing well in the last month of the season where they won 23 of their last 26 games. The Cougars captured their second regional title in the last three years after dropping Trinidad State 11-2 in the title game on March 9.

"We were not seeded as high as I thought we would be, but I think all the games will be exciting," Winn-Ratliff said. "If we play well and do the little things right anything is possible for this team. The young ladies are very excited and eager to get to Utah."

First-round games at the national tournament that begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday include No. 1 Salt Lake Community College (59-3) against No. 16 Pitt Community College (39-11); No. 8 Seward County Community College (47-12) against No. 9 Seminole (Okla.) State (43-12), No. 5 Yavapai College (50-14) against No. 12 Indian Hills (33-22), and No. 4 Wallace State (56-7) against No. 13 John A. Logan College (38-9).

The first-round games set for 12:30 p.m. include No. 3 Miami Dade against No. 14 WNCC, No. 6 Blinn College (44-9) against No. 11 Temple College (33-20), No. 7 Chattanooga State (51-12) against No. 10 Odessa College 33-27), and No. 2 Chipola College (47-11) against No. 15 Geogia Perimeter (28-13).

WNCC played just Odessa College during the regular season, splitting with the Texas school during a spring break trip to Arizona in falling 12-4 in the first game before winning the second game 14-8.

If the Cougars win, they will play at 7 p.m. on Thursday against the winner of the Temple and Blinn contest. A loss in the first round pits the Cougars in an elimination game against the loser of the Temple and Blinn game at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Action in the double-elimination tournament continues through Saturday.

Seven of the 16 qualifying teams played for the title in St. George last year, including Wallace State, which won the 2008 national title and was the national runner-up to Yavapai in 2009. Meanwhile, Salt Lake CC, Blinn College, Seward County CC, Seminole State and Odessa College join Yavapai and WSCC in making their second national tourney appearance in Utah’s Dixie.

This year, the NJCAA has partnered with Panhandle Sports Broadcasting (PSB) to provide live streaming video/audio play-by-play coverage of the entire 2010 NJCAA Division I Women’s Softball Championship. PSB will is to have cameras and announcers at all four fields for the three-day tournament. For more information and a complete broadcast schedule, please visit www.psblive.com.

This is the second year of a three-year agreement between the City of St. George and the NJCAA to host the annual championship tournament. Last year, the NJCAA tournament was the first sports national championship at any collegiate level to be held by the City of St. George at The Canyons Softball Complex, which is an eight-time “Complex of the Year” award winner.
The festivities get underway on Wednesday, May 19, with individual team practice sessions at the complex. In addition, a special welcome banquet to honor all the teams and participants will take place that evening at 6:00 p.m., at the St. George City Town Square, featuring a keynote address by Michelle Delloso, a three-time All-American infielder at the University of South Carolina and former member of the Colorado Silver Bullets women’s professional baseball team, which has been inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

For more information about the NJCAA Division I Fast Pitch Softball Tournament, including bracket pairings and game times, or to pre-purchase tickets at discounted prices, please visit www.jucostg.org. Tickets can also be purchased at the St. George City Recreation Center at 285 S. 400 E., or by telephone by calling 435-627-4560.