Patriots' preview: College of Central Florida playing in NJCAA softball championships
The National Junior College Athletic Association Division I softball championships begin Tuesday at Pacific Avenue Athletic Complex in Yuma, Arizona, and one of the 16 teams in the field is the College of Central Florida.
Seeded 11th, the Patriots (45-16) enter the 5 p.m. opening-round contest against No. 6 seed Butler Community College (48-2) having won 11 of 13. Included in that were three victories May 6-8 to claim the FSCAA/NJCAA South Atlantic District Tournament title. CF topped Seminole State College of Florida 10-2 in the final.
With the Patriots looking to bring a national championship to Ocala, here is a look at coach Mike Lingle’s team and what lies ahead in the double-elimination tournament, which is scheduled to run through Saturday.
In the circle
CF has three pitchers who have thrown at least 80 innings this season.
Leading the way is sophomore Savannah Barnett, who enters the tournament 21-6 with a 1.70 ERA and 172 strikeouts in 172.2 innings pitched. She earned all three wins in the South Atlantic District Tournament, allowing just six earned runs, and has 22 complete games in 2022.
Two freshmen are next in the rotation. Katey Pierce, who also plays first base, is 10-2 with a save. She has a 2.86 ERA with 50 strikeouts in 95.1 IP. And Emily Proctor is 9-5 with a 3.90 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 80.2 IP. Pierce and Proctor have combined for 25 starts and 17 relief appearances.
Batter up
Four Patriots with at least 100 at-bats are hitting better than .400, and the team as a whole is batting .364.
Sophomore outfielder Gianna Guerriero leads the way with a .479 BA. Emily Konz is next at .449, followed by Kamaya Cohen (.418) and Alyssa Adams (.416). Jade Fayad comes in at .409 but has had only 66 at-bats.
CF has 48 home runs with much of that power coming from four hitters.
A first-team All-American in 2021, Guerriero has a team-high 11 homers, with Brooke Roberts (10), Adams (nine) and Katie Hogue (eight) not far behind.
Roberts leads the team in RBIs (66) and doubles (19), while Guerriero also is tops in triples (six) and runs scored (59).
The biggest threats on the basepaths are Cohen (50 steals in 51 attempts, ranking 11th nationally) and Guerriero (40 in 42 tries, tied for 22nd). In all, the Patriots have been successful in 211 of 224 stolen base attempts.
Local product
Forest alum Hannah Meyer has contributed at first base and catcher this year.
A sophomore who hits from the left side and throws from the right, Meyer is batting .328 with 14 doubles (third on the team), three home runs (fifth), 28 RBIs (sixth) and 23 runs (ninth).
Meyer finished a combined 5-for-7 with four runs, four RBIs, three doubles and a homer against Pensacola State College and Seminole State College of Florida, respectively, in the final two games of the district tournament. She enters this week with seven hits in her last four games.
About opponent Butler
Based in El Dorado, Kansas, the Grizzlies won the 2016 and ‘17 national championships. They enter the tournament on a 23-game winning streak and finished fifth in last year’s event.
The only team to beat Butler this year was rival Hutchinson, which finished 2-2 against the Grizzlies.
Butler infielder Madi Young is second in the nation in batting average (.573) and is fourth in runs (94). Her stat line is filled with more gaudy numbers (65 RBIs, 47 SBs, 13 HRs in 50 games). Signed to play for Central Arkansas next year, Young has scored at least three runs in 12 games, was a first-team All-American in 2021 and, like Guerriero, probably will repeat that honor this season.
The Grizzlies hit .428 as a team and have five players with at least 99 at-bats who are hitting .404 or better. Not far behind Young are Alex Olson (.500) and Emily Adler (.486).
Butler has 90 home runs this season with Reese Briggs (14), Young (13), Olson (12), Ari Cordova (11) and Gianna De Luca-Paape (10) accounting for 60 of them.
The team’s hottest hitter, Cordova has smashed five homers and driven in 24 runs since April 30. She also had 11 RBIs in one game this season and has 64 total, second-best on the Grizzlies.
Right-hander Emma Koeneke (25-1) is tied for third in the nation in wins and has a 1.39 ERA with 155 Ks in 100.2 IP. Second starter Allyson Montgomery (22-0) is tied for 12th nationally in wins and also has been dominant, striking out 150 in 89 IP with a 1.73 ERA.
Koeneke and Montgomery each have just one complete game, showing the faith Butler has in freshman Kendal LeGrand (0-1, two saves, 2.18 ERA, 69 Ks in 64.1 IP), who leads the staff in appearances (41) but has no starts.
The rest of the field
The defending champion and top seed is Florida SouthWestern State (49-5), based out of Fort Myers. The Bucs open at 1 p.m. Tuesday against No. 16 seed Georgia Military (38-21).
This game is on the opposite side of the bracket from CF, and competitors also include No. 8 Chattanooga State, No. 9 Southern Idaho, No. 5 Odessa, No. 12 San Jacinto, No. 4 Seminole State (Oklahoma) and No. 13 Lake Land College.
The CF-Butler winner will face the No. 3 Wallace State (54-2)-No. 14 Paris (33-15) winner. Also on that half of the bracket are No. 7 McLennan, No. 10 Crowder, No. 2 Yavapai and No. 15 Snead State. Three of the top four hitters in the country (McLennan’s Caitlyn Wong at .589, Young and Yavapai’s Yaya Kaaialli at .562) are on this side of the bracket, as is the nation’s top home run hitter and RBI producer, Yavapai’s Lovey Kepa’a (33 HRs, 102 RBIs).
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: College softball: Central Florida Patriots playing in NJCAA championships
