BROWNWOOD, Texas – The Western Nebraska Community College softball team dropped a pair of contests in the second day of the Cisco Classic in Brownwood, Texas.
The first game saw the Cougars fall 14-0 to Temple College, a team that is always at the national tournament. The second game then saw the Cougars' 7th-inning rally come up short in falling in a heartbreaker 6-5 over Western Oklahoma State College.
The Cougars will be off until the first weekend in March when they travel to McCook for the Region IX pre-season round-round tournament.
The second game was one of those should-have, could-have games where the Cougars let the contest slip through their fingertips.
WNCC opened the scoring with two in the second. DemiRae Woolsey led off with a single and pinch-runner Bella Mumford scored on a Bella Coffman triple. Coffman came in to score on a Victoria Wharton groundout for the 2-0 lead.
WNCC had a prime opportunity to widen the lead in the third when WNCC loaded the bases with one out, but couldn't get the runners in.
Western Oklahoma came back to take a 3-2 lead with three runs in the fourth. WNCC answered in the bottom of the fourth with a run to tie the game. Coffman led off after reaching base after being hit by a pitch. Coffman scored one batter later on a Macyn Hartman single for the 3-3 tie.
Western Oklahoma took a 6-3 lead with two in the sixth and one in the seventh. Down to their final at-bat, WNCC made a seventh-inning rally. With one out, Lexi Butterfield and Erin Hanafin each hit solo home runs to bring the score to 7-6. That was as close as they could get in falling in the game.
WNCC outhit Western Oklahoma 8-7 with eight different Cougars having at least one hit. Coffman had a double with two runs scored and RBI, while Hanafin and Butterfield each had home runs.
The first game saw the Cougars and Temple not score a run in the first inning. It was the second inning that saw Temple open the game with 10 runs. After that, Temple scored just once in the third and three in the fifth.
WNCC had just two hits in the contest. The first hit came in the bottom of the third when Hartman had a single, but she was stranded on base. The second hit came in the fourth when Butterfield led off with a double, but the Cougars couldn't get Butterfield in to score.
Game 1
Temple 0(10)1 03 – 14 12 2
WNCC 000 00 – 0 2 4
LP – DesaRae Woolsey.
2B – Lexi Butterfield.
Game 2
W. Oklahoma 000 302 1 – 6 7 1
WNCC 020 100 2 – 6 8 2
LP – Lexi Butterfield.
3B – Bella Coffman.
HR – Erin Hanafin. Lexi Butterfield.