WNC Softball: Wildcats poised for postseason success
Submitted by editor on Mon, 05/09/2016 - 6:42pm
The timing of the Region 18 softball tournament couldn't be better for Western Nevada College. The Wildcats are playing their best softball of the season coming into this week's double-elimination tournament in Taylorsville, Utah.
WNC has won its past three series and 10 of its past 11 games going into is tournament opener against Colorado Northwestern on Wednesday morning.
"We are coming on really strong right now," said WNC coach Leah Wentworth. "To see the improvement that we've made in the second half of the season has been really fun to watch. Every series we've come into we've improved on the last one."
The surging Wildcats of Carson City (24-26 overall and 19-20 in SWAC play) nearly caught Snow for third place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference standings, but enter the six-team tournament as the No. 4 seed.
From ace pitcher Kristina George (11-8 overall), to the offense and defense, the Wildcats have shown improvement as they try to give longstanding tournament favorites Salt Lake and College of Southern Idaho a run for their money.
"Even though the way the standings played out is pretty typical of what we've seen in the past, the conference as a whole has become much more competitive," Wentworth said. "We've beaten every team going in, so we know what it takes to come out on top. It's a matter of staying in the moment and playing hard to the end."
Last weekend, the Wildcats roughed up the Coyotes in Henderson, winning 16-4, 15-1 and 15-0, completing each victory in five innings.
"It was one of our best outings to just go out there and beat them in five innings in all three games," Wentworth said. "I'm looking forward to what's next. We're right where we want to be going into postseason play."
The Wildcats swept all eight games against Colorado Northwestern during the regular season, but Wentworth is cautiously optimistic about their 8:30 a.m. matchup with the Spartans on Wednesday.
"We just need to make sure we go in there strong and forget about what has happened in the past," Wentworth said. "Every team is coming in with a fresh start and a clean slate. Our biggest challenge facing Colorado Northwestern is not getting too comfortable. We had some really close games in our series, so we can't go in there thinking we have it in the bag. We need to do what we have been doing the last few weeks."
If the Wildcats win their tournament opener, they will meet top-seeded Salt Lake (41-7) at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. If the Wildcats drop into the losers' bracket, they would play at 11 a.m. Thursday.
Follow the Wildcats during the three-day tournament at www.sidearmstats.com/slcc/softball.
