Caldwell Community College one win short of national junior college softball championship
The Caldwell Cobras advanced to the National Junior College Athletic Association national championship series last weekend, finishing as the national runners up.
The Cobras broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to defeat Joliet College 2-0 Friday in the national semifinal. The win earned Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute its first-ever trip to the championship round of the NJCAA Division III Softball World Series in DeWitt, NY.
Friday night's semifinal matchup between Caldwell and Joliet turned into a pitcher's duel. Joliet's first and only base runner of the game came in the top of the seventh inning on a single by Samantha Rios.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Caldwell's Parker Boggs led the off with a double to left field. After a flyout, Chloe Wilson delivered an RBI double for the game's first run. Caldwell's insurance run came later in the inning on an RBI single by Skylar Smith, making the score 2-0.
Zoe Cheek was near perfect in the circle for Caldwell, pitching a complete game one-hit shutout.
Taking their shot
The Cobras fell 15-3 to North Dakota State College of Science in the championship game on Saturday. It was the second straight national title for NDSCS (55-8).
The two teams met in a winner's bracket game on Thursday, with NDSCS earning a 3-1 victory. That meant that, coming into Saturday's championship series of the double elimination tournament, Caldwell needed to defeat NDSCS in game one in order to force a winner-take-all game two.
Caldwell grabbed the early advantage in game one, scoring eight runs over the first three innings. Skylar Smith led the way with a solo homerun in the second inning and an RBI double in the third inning. NDSCS answered with two runs in the bottom of the third inning to make the score 8-2 in Caldwell's favor.
Caldwell responded in the top of the fourth inning with four runs on RBI singles by Parker Boggs and Ally Greer, as well as Smith's third RBI of the game.
NDSCS scored four runs to cut the lead to 12-6 in the fourth inning. Caldwell scored one run in the top of fifth inning, then exploded for four runs in the top of the sixth inning. Kylee Martin and Ashland Palmer each had home runs to help push the Cobra advantage to 17-6. The Cobras retired the Wildcats in the bottom of the inning to secure the mercy run victory.
In game two, however, NDSCS jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the top of the second inning before Caldwell scored on an RBI walk by Boggs and a passed ball in the bottom half of the inning. In the third inning, though, the Wildcats would add to their lead and cruise to a 15-3 mercy rule win.
Caldwell finished the season with a program record of 48 wins (48-8). Ally Greer, Kylee Martin and Chloe Wilson were named to the All-World Series team, and Zoe Cheek was recognized as the Most Valuable Pitcher of the tournament.
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