MCCOOK – The Western Nebraska Community College softball team has won 14 of 16 games in the month of April as they get ready for the Region IX tournament that begins Friday in McCook and runs through Sunday with the championship game.
WNCC comes into the tournament with a 25-23 record and is the third seed in the tournament. The Cougars will open tournament play Friday at 3:30 p.m. MST against second-seeded Otero College. Otero is 24-17 on the season.
WNCC head coach Courtney Medina said the key for the Cougars at regionals to bring home a regional title is to keep playing the way they have been.
"The key to this game (on Friday) and all the games is execution," Medina said. "Executing the play at hand, staying grounded and just focusing on doing the job that's being asked."
What makes this an interesting tourney and any team is capable of winning. Top seed McCook Community College opens the tournament when they face No. 4 Trinidad State College at 12 noon on Friday. Play continues Saturday with the championship game slated for Sunday at 11 a.m. MST. The winner qualifies for the national tournament in Yuma, Colorado, May 14-21.
The last time WNCC won a regional title was in 2019 when they went 35-20. Medina said this team can win another title if they play Cougar ball.
"We need to keep playing Cougar softball and stay true to our culture," she said. "This group is very selfless and play their best softball when they're competing and playing hard for each other. So, we just need to keep doing those things."
WNCC is one of the hottest teams in the tournament having won 14 straight matches, beginning with an 8-7 win over Otero on March 28. After that win, WNCC reeled off another 13 straight that included two wins each against Ft. Hays Tech Northwest and Lamar Community College. WNCC then swept NJC and Luna and won the first game against McCook 12-4 last weekend.
Medina has seen plenty of improvement of the team through the season. WNCC was 4-10 through February and allowed three teams to score 10 or more runs during that stretch. Now, the Cougars have a streak of 19 straight games where they have held their opponent under 10 runs.
"They have improved tremendously since the beginning of the season in terms of playing and their ability to get well with each other," Medina said. "They have always been great people and awesome culture kids, but now that they've been outside for a while, it's nice to see their softball ability really shine through. They make everything really fun."
That fun is having themes on road trips and the theme for the road trip to regionals was "wiggin' out". That wiggin theme shows how close this team is and every player has come into a game and provided something at some key moment.
"We have a great culture and 1-19 are important to us and important to playing hard," Medina said. "It would mean a lot but we're just trying to take care of playing good softball and not think about anything other than competing well and playing Cougar ball."
During the month of April, WNCC has outscored their opponents 170-50. Otero, the team's first-round opponent, have one three straight and are 8-4 in April. Otero went 2-2 against McCook, including falling 20-3 and 20-5, while beating the Indians 7-3 and 6-4.
WNCC also went 2-2 against McCook, winning 12-6 and 7-6, while falling 9-1 and 7-4.
Otero won the series against WNCC 3-1 the end of March, All four games were competitive contests. Otero won the first three 13-10, 4-1, and 7-6 before the Cougars got the fourth game 8-7.
WNCC has a team batting average of .345 while holding their opponents to .324. WNCC has scored 328 runs this season while allowing their opponents 269. The Cougars have more doubles, triples, and home runs against their opponents. The Cougars have 89 doubles this season while they have 19 triples and 14 home runs.
WNCC's Tina Horton leads the team with 12 doubles followed by Randi Mitchell with 10. JoLee Huffaker leads with six triples, while Mykah Klumpp and Lydia Tibbals each has five home runs.
WNCC has four players hitting .400 or better on the season. Faythe Lafirenza leads the team at .410 followed by JoLee Huffaker at .403, Lydia Tibbals at .402, and Sierra Hilgner at .400. Right behind them is Tina Horton at .395, Randi Mitchell at .377 and Kallie Stocking at .359.
The pitching has really been solid for the team as the team has a 4.63 team. Kayli Cooper leads with a 3.29 ERA and 16-7 record while Kallie Stocking has a 4.42 ERA and Jenika Fuentes at 4.79.
The Region IX tournament games can be watched online at the McCook website www.mccindians.com/watchlive.