The North Central Missouri College softball team ran hot and cold at the Region 16 tournament in Columbia over the weekend, with a 2-2 record, finished with a 10-6 loss to St. Charles, ending the Lady Pirates 2016 season with a record of 31-17.
Play opened for NCMC on Friday morning, with a 7-5 win against #6 seed St. Charles. An outburst of seven runs over the 3rd and 4th innings provided just enough cushion for the Lady Pirates, as St. Charles pushed North Central late, scoring three runs in the fifth and a run in the 7th to make NCMC sweat. Alison Hilsabeck, an All-Region 16 pitcher for North Central, picked up the win to improve to 13-3 on the season. Hilsabeck pitched the first 4 2/3 innings before being relieved by Jessica Stupar, who held on in the late innings. McKinley Hurley and Courtney Seymour had two runs scored and two hits each for the Lady Pirates offense, while Madi Trump and TeriAnna Mohler had two RBI’s each in the Lady Pirates 30th win of the season.
A victory in Game #2 would have put the Lady Pirates in outstanding shape going into Saturday, but North Central suffered a 13-1, five inning defeat against eventual Region 16 champion Jefferson. Suffering the same fate in being blown out by JeffCo, NCMC starter Jessica Stupar gave up 13 hits and 13 runs in 4 innings of work, while the Lady Pirates could only muster a fifth-inning run off JeffCo starter Shelby Clark, who improved to 23-10. A Madi Trump double in the fourth inning scored McKinley Hurley for NCMC. The Lady Pirates committed three errors and gave up 17 hits.
Pushed into loser’s bracket play, NCMC faced Three Rivers Community College on Friday night, and trailed 1-0 in the top of the 2nd inning when anticipated rainfall hit the Columbia area, and postponed play for the rest of the night.
NCMC came back strong on Saturday, scoring a 2nd inning run to tie the game with 1-1, and, after both teams scored three runs in the fourth (leaving the game tied at 4-4), Stupar shut out Three Rivers over four straight innings, while the Lady Pirates broke the tie with four runs in the top of the eighth inning, coming out with an 8-4 win. Madi Trump hit a home run and had four RBI’s for North Central, while Hurley was 2-for-5 and Seymour had a hit and a run scored. The bottom of the order proved key for NCMC as well, with Bethany Jacobsen scoring three runs and driving in a pair, while Aubrey Nelson reached base three times and scored a run.
The victory over Three Rivers pushed North Central into a rematch with the very same St. Charles team that the Lady Pirates had beaten the previous morning. However, the St. Charles squad, on Saturday afternoon, had new-found momentum, after taking a 5-4 upset win over #1 seed Crowder College that knocked the Lady ‘Riders out of the tournament on Saturday morning. St. Charles, in a second-round losers bracket game, ended North Central’s season with a 10-6 win. NCMC, in the contest, took a 3-0 lead after one inning, but struggled keeping St. Charles off the board from the middle innings on, and committed three errors, leading to five unearned runs for SCCC. The #6 seed tied the game at 3-3 with three runs in the third inning. Both teams scored a run in the 4th, but St. Charles took the lead for good with two runs in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth.
The Lady Pirates battered St. Charles pitching with 15 hits, including three each from Seymour, Jacobsen, and Hurley, along with two hits each from Mohler and Trump, including a home run for Mohler. Aubrey Nelson had a solo homer in a 2-for-4 game.
St. Charles advanced to the loser’s bracket final, and defeated Maple Woods 6-5 on Saturday afternoon, advancing to the Region 16 championship game against Jefferson. Needing two wins in two days to win the region title, St. Charles was doused by the Lady Vikings on Saturday night 9-2. Jefferson won three games over two days at Battle High School by a combined score of 38-3, a dominant performance by the new Region 16 softball champions.
