MGCCC softball ready for NJCAA National Tournament

The 2009 Region 23 Champions.

Lady Bulldogs hungry for Division II Title

PERKINSTON---For the second time in the last three years, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College is headed to the NJCAA Division II National Fast pitch Softball Tournament in Normal, Ill.

Also for the second time in the last three years, head coach Kenneth Long’s taking a team to the nationals that’s loaded with freshmen…19, to be exact. In 2007, Gulf Coast went 44-4 and finished third in the nation with a squad that featured 16 newcomers.

“There are lots of similarities between this team and the 2007 squad,” Long said. “But there are also some big differences.”

Like the way the Lady Bulldogs (26-10) got to this point.

Back on Mar. 4, Gulf Coast faced Co-Lin in Wesson in their MACJC South Division opening doubleheader. The Wolves, the defending state and region 23 champions, won the first game 3-2 but Gulf Coast took the second game by a 3-2 margin.

“That’s when we knew we could play with anyone,” said freshman pitcher Brittany Fields (13-3, 2.79 ERA). “Back in the fall we kept hearing that Co-Lin was the best team, but when we beat them we realized that we were pretty good too.”

Gulf Coast went on to post an 18-6 South Division record and made a run at the state title. But in the MACJC State Championship game Apr. 25, the Lady Bulldogs blew a 5-1 lead to Co-Lin and eventually lost 8-5.

“That hurt bad,” Fields added. “It hurt more than any break-up with a guy or anything.”

However, Gulf Coast used the loss as motivation for the Region 23 Tournament the following week in Clinton. Their first test was against No. 6 ranked LSU-Eunice, a team that featured 6 players with 10 or more home runs this season.

“We were stressing out about that game,” said Lady Bulldog freshman Cassie Slaton. “But when we got out there and played ball with them, we knew we could take them.”

They did, by a score of 5-2. The next day, Gulf Coast exacted some revenge on Co-Lin by shutting out the Lady Wolves 2-0 to advance to the title game against LSU-E.

“We felt like we owed them,” Long said.

In the title game with LSU-E, Gulf Coast fell behind twice to the Lady Bengals, but never gave up the fight to win. Gulf Coast was down 4-2 to the Lady Bengals heading into the bottom of the 6th when catcher Sarah Smaltz belted her 13th homerun of the season to cut the lead to one. Then in the 7th, lead-off batter Tiffany Fuller walked to bring up Holly Lawrence, The sophomore from D’Iberville who leads the team with a .425 batting average, ripped a shot to the fence allowing Fuller to score all the way from first to tie the game at 4-4. Julie Mercer then came up and her hot shot to the shortstop bounced into center field and Lawrence beat the throw home to complete the comeback.

“We knew we had to step it up in that game and we did,” Slaton added.

Another difference between the 2009 team and the 2007 squad is pitching. Two years ago, Gulf Coast rode the arm of Danielle Ryan for 28 of their 44 victories.

In 2009, Fields and sophomore transfer Brandi Westerfield (11-5, 2.33 ERA) have carried much of the load, with Tiffany Fuller (1-1) providing a huge win in the circle in the Lady Bulldogs’ first win over LSU-E at the Region 23 Tournament.

Now it’s onto the 16-team, three-day double elimination event May 14-16, and although playing against the top teams in the nation may seem like a daunting task, Gulf Coast is read for the challenge.

“We’re going into this tournament on such a high right now,” Long said. “This team can get got very quickly and come through when things are tough. I told them I love this team because it competes every day.”