NORMAL, Ill. – Copiah-Lincoln’s Lady Wolves Softball team can now say they tried harder, having become the runner-up in the NJCAA Division II Softball Championship, held at Champion Field here.
Having lost Friday by an 8-5 count to Phoenix College, top ranked in tournament brackets, and its reigning champion for the last four years going into Saturday’s play, Co-Lin head coach Allen Kent said his team wanted “another shot” at the Bears.
On Saturday, Co-Lin knew they got a second shot at Phoenix College, but the Lady Wolves needed to start Saturday by trying to beat the literal hometown team from this area, the Heartland Community College Hawks.
Although HCC has been a part of the Town of Normal for almost 20 years, HCC did not begin an athletic program until last fall with Men’s and Women’s Soccer, debuting Softball and Baseball for the first time this Spring.
Crochet scored the only run Co-Lin needed in the bottom of the seventh inning, on a sacrifice by Rousseau and squeeze play, to shut out HCC, 1-0 Saturday morning.
That win put Co-Lin in the finals against Phoenix College, but that also meant needing to win to claim the championship outright. To do that would require two games with two straight wins since Phoenix College beat Co-Lin once Friday.
But Phoenix College displayed too much muscle in the second game in two days between the two teams, scoring six runs in the fifth inning, beating the Lady Wolves, 9-1. Ten batters came to the plate in that inning, getting five hits, including four singles, and a double by Bears third baseman Ashlie Rosenberg.
Co-Lin’s game concept of “small ball” – hitting singles to get girls around the bases to score runs, thus confounding opponents – did not get much of a chance to work against Phoenix College sophomore pitcher Patricia Moreno. Moreno registered 12 strikeouts, and contributed to Co-Lin stranding seven runners on base.
Sophomore shortstop Ashley Sykes and sophomore designated player Becca Bailey were named to this year’s All-Tournament Team. Both said they were happy about the honor.
“To be named (for the All-Tournament Team) is a thrill,” Sykes said. “But it is also kind of a shock. I very much enjoyed (this experience).”
“We put all of our effort into the game against Heartland Community College (starting the day) so that we could get to this point (in the championship against Phoenix College), “Bailey said. “We wanted to make school history (by winning the tourney).”
In fact, Co-Lin can be proud of taking second place because, in previous years, the highest any Co-Lin team had gotten was third.
“This was one of the best seasons that any team from our school has ever had,” Kent said after the award ceremony. “Having made it to the National Championship game is something we will take with us always.
“We’re proud to have been here,” Kent said. “We just had a difficult finish (in our last game). Phoenix is a great team, a phenomenal team.”
A Swing, A Miss, A Chance: Lady Wolves freshman utility player Brittany Watts can, someday, look back on this experience and admit she, too, despite an injury, was able to get a swing at the National Championship.
In the beginning of Co-Lin’s seventh inning against the Bears, Kent put Watts, who broke her right pinky in practice after the team arrived here earlier this week, up to bat so that she could at least get the chance to say she played in the National tourney.
The ball missed Watts’ glove and struck her finger, preventing her from being able to throw at all or continue playing in depth, but NCAA rules allow for a player to participate under those conditions provided that the batter finishing the turn at bat claims the umpire’s count that results.
“(Brittany’s) glad to be here, but, you know, I was looking for a way to get her in the game,” Kent said. “I told her if she wanted to swing, she could, and she did, so that she could say she played in the National Championship game.”
Watts swung and missed, leaving an 0-1 count for freshman pitcher Rebecca Rousseau.
No New Streaks: Co-Lin hit a lucky 13th win on day one of this tourney Thursday against Delaware Tech. Friday, the Lady Wolves’ luck lasted for just one more game on the day, as the Lady Wolves beat Kansas-based Johnson County Community College, 9-5 in nine innings on the strength of a grand slam homer by second baseman Kayla Crochet.
Co-Lin led 4-3 going into the seventh inning until a two-out blast over the left field fence by JCCC shortstop Lindsey Bawers tied the game, going into the bottom of the innng.
The game was forced into extra innings after JCCC reliever Katie Ford set down Rousseau, Sykes, and Crochet in order.
A single by Karee McDonald in the top of the eighth inning scored outfielder Lindsay Tuter, putting JCCC up 5-4. Co-Lin pitcher Meleah Brown motored home from second base to tie the score at 5-all, then Co-Lin’s pitching, courtesy of Bailey, held forcing JCCC batters to go down in order in their top half of the ninth.
Langley, Rousseau, and Sykes all reached base with no outs in the bottom of the ninth when Crochet came to the plate. Crochet blasted the ball over the center field wall to provide the muscle needed for Co-Lin to win its 14th straight game by a 9-5 count, putting the Lady Wolves just two steps closer to a rematch with Phoenix College.
“I was just trying to get the hit,” Crochet said about her first career grand slam and 11 homer of the season. “I didn’t care if it was a pop-up or not because Emily’s fast. (Regardless of where the ball would have landed), she would have scored.”
“(The home run) was a little shocking,” she said.
Bailey through 137 pitches in the game against JCCC.
But all streaks do come to an end, and Co-Lin’s did against Phoenix College, the reigning champion of this tourney, who before Saturday had taken home four winners’ trophies from here.
Against Phoenix College on Friday, Co-Lin looked to apply their brand of “small ball” against the Bears to do it. But Friday ended with Phoenix College snapping Co-Lin’s winning streak with an 8-5 win. Co-Lin’s streak of 14 straight wins and 21 wins in their last 23 tries had started late in the regular season.
Kent said the winning streak “was good while it lasted,” but he was also philosophical about it ending.
“It was good while it lasted, but (then again,) who better to break our streak than the number one team in the nation?”