- DMACC is making its seventh consecutive appearance in the tournament
- Bears enter the tournament riding a 14-game winning streak
- Muskegon CC is seeded 13th
The DMACC softball team will face Muskegon (Mich.) Community College (MCC) in the Bears' first game of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II Softball Championship.
The game will be played at 2 p.m., today at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala.
DMACC, making its seventh consecutive appearance in the tournament, is 49-12 overall and riding a 14-game winning streak. The Bears are seeded fourth after finishing the regular season at the No. 4 team in the NJCAA Division II poll. MCC, the No. 13 seed, is 31-6 with a two-game winning streak.
"I'm very, very pleased with our seeding," DMACC softball coach Bob Ligouri said. "We were rated fourth in the final national poll and we are seeded fourth in the national tournament. I don't think you can get any fairer than that. Teams from Michigan traditionally are very good so we feel like it's going to be a tough game. The team that relaxes the best will win."
The 2020 NJCAA Division II Softball Championship was cancelled because of COVID-19, so DMACC comes into the 2021 tournament with a whole new team. No one on the roster has national tournament experience.
"It's the equivalent of playing a team of freshmen," Ligouri said, adding that his team also played a very limited fall schedule in 2020. Ligouri countered that with a spring scheduled that included a number of NJCAA Division I opponents.
"We played the largest number of NJCAA Division I opponents of any DII team in the country," Ligouri said. "At one time we were 8-7, but we played a really difficult early schedule and we didn't have any experience. And two weeks before the start of our season (sophomore pitcher) Josie Swafford left to go to the University of North Carolina-Charlotte so we had to hand the ball to freshmen who were just out of high school and had never pitched against the caliber of competition I put them against early in the year. It was kind of a learning by fire if you will."
Freshmen pitchers Abby Flanagan of Coggon and Alexis Lander of Onawa will get the call in the national tournament. Flanagan is 19-4 with a 2.56 earned run overage and Lander is 17-4 with a 2.12 ERA. Freshman Ellie Jacobson of Humboldt, who is 13-4 with a 3.20 ERA, will miss the tournament because of injuries.
Offensively, DMACC will be led by freshman Sophie Maras of Johnston. Maras is hitting .529 with 29 home runs and 92 runs batted in. Freshman Kaylie Reynolds of Muscatine is hitting .410 with 24 home runs and 84 RBIs and freshman Delaney Kelley is batting .435 with eight home runs and 79 RBIs. As a team, DMACC is batting .388 with 94 home runs, 521 RBIs and 567 runs scored.
"I don't think we have one player on our team who hasn't significantly improved over the course of the year," Ligouri said. "Traditionally, DMACC has played its best softball to get to the (national championship). We have always played really well at the end of the year and this team has saved its best softball for the playoffs. That's why they are in the (national championship)."
The DMACC-MCC winner will play either fifth-seeded Highland Community College (HCC) or St. Louis Community College (SLCC) in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. on May 26. The DMACC-MCC loser will play the loser of the HCC-SLCC game in an elimination game at 10 a.m. on May 26.
The double-elimination tournament continues through May 29 with the championship game scheduled for noon on May 29.