Wildcats Win National Championship

The NDSCS Wildcats Softball team reclaimed their spot as National Champions for the second year in a row, and three of the last four under Head Coach Mike Oehlke.  The Wildcats traveled all the way to Syracuse, New York from Wahpeton and completed their mission of bringing home the NJCAA DIII National Championship.  

The Wildcats started their Championship run on Wednesday where they defeated Erie Community College 11-4, and Corning Community College 11-0.  Pitcher Ella Stewart threw a perfect game against Corning.  On Thursday, the Wildcats had their first game against Caldwell Community College and Techinical Institute which became a pitchers duel with NDSCS coming out on top 3-1 to put them in the National Championship series.  Saturday saw NDSCS playing Caldwell once again, and Caldwell was swinging away in game one.  Caldwell's bats were hot where they put up 17 runs including three home runs to end up defeating the 'Cats by a score of 6-17.  The NJCAA World Series is a double-elimination tournament so Caldwell forced a game two against NDSCS.  Game two saw the tables turn as the Wildcats' bats got hot early where NDSCS was able to get off to a big lead and keep it there for the remainder of the game.  The Wildcats scored 15 runs on 13 hits and got a solid pitching performance from Heeley Taylor.  The weather was cold, windy, and rainy for the entire game which made it challenging for both sides especially on the mound (10 BBs by each team) and the Wildcats took advantage of the situation.  The Wildcats scored a run in each of the six innings played leading them to a 15-3 win over Caldwell and reclaiming the National Championship.

Seven different Wildcats logged an RBI (including five players with two each) in the game and eight different players scored runs in the game.  

NDSCS finishes the season with a record of 55-8 (17-3 Mon-Dak), Mon-Dak Conference Champions, Region XIII Champions, District Champions, and for the third time in four years - National Champions.