“I want us to be playing our best at the end of the season and we did that,” said Head Coach Michelle Patrico.
SCC entered the regional tournament as the five seed and were matched against fourth-seeded North Central Missouri College. Despite losing all four regular season matchups, the Lady Cougars won their first round game 1-0 in the eighth inning. Sophomore Anna Bowden doubled to lead off the eighth, and fellow sophomore Bridget Allgier drove her in with a single. Sophomore pitcher Ashley Lutz threw all eight innings for the shutout win, while only giving up three hits.
In the second round, SCC met the top seed, Crowder College. SCC handed Crowder one of only three regional play losses during the regular season. The Lady Cougars once again played them tough, but ended up losing the game 3-2. SCC pulled even with the one-seed in the fourth thanks to a 2-RBI double by freshman pitcher Madison Bradley. However, in the fifth, the eventual game winning run was scored on an error.
In the loser's bracket, SCC was able to down the six seed, Maple Woods 6-5. In the bottom of the seventh inning with the game tied at five, freshman Shannon Clardy singled home Bowden for the walk-off win.
In the next round, the Lady Cougars met the two seed, Jefferson College. SCC started strong, putting the pressure on Jefferson, with Lutz sitting down the first three batters in order and the offense getting runners on in the bottom of the inning thanks in part to the Jefferson pitcher struggling to find the zone. However, a lightning delay of an hour cooled the SCC momentum.
“It was looking our way, but we couldn't get anything going after that,” said Patrico.
Jefferson went on to score four runs, including two coming off a home run in the bottom of the fourth, to end the Lady Cougars' season with the 4-0 final. Jefferson went on to win the tournament and advanced to the next round of the NJCAA playoffs.
The SCC softball team finished the 2014 season with a record of 10-32, 3-18 in MCCAC play and 5-19 against Region XVI opponents.