Mountaineer Softball Team

STAFF REPORTS
(Press Release 3-23-06)

Lady Mountaineer Softball Team Ranked 16th in the National Poll

Below is the first national poll for this season in softball. The Lady Mountaineers are ranked 16th at this time. NEO is ranked 10th, having beaten Eastern twice at home before losing the last time they played as Eastern defeated NEO 4-0 to win the Midwest JUCO Classic the weekend before spring break. The Lady Mountaineers won the Eastern Spring Classic at McAlester and were undefeated in the Cowtown Classic in Fort Worth before it was cancelled due to weather. Eastern has also beaten Colby, KS 8-0, ranked 17th, and Bossier Parrish 2-1, ranked 20th.

The Lady Mountaineers travel to Midwest City Saturday to take on Rose State in Conference play, home on Sunday against Connors in a make-up game, then to Altus on Tuesday to play Western before hosting Seminole next Thursday. All these games will be conference games.

Eastern has outscored it's opponents 139-26 this season and hit 29 homeruns in 25 games. Both pitchers have an ERA below 1 and are currently ranked in the top ten in strikeouts, with Marge Johnson leading the nation. Karla Pittman is 8th. Johnson is also ranked third in homeruns hit with 9 and Ashley Graham is 31 with 5 homers. The team is 7th in team batting average.

If you would like to follow these ladies in the national stat ranking go to www.njcaa.org, then select a women's sport, softball 1, go to the stats link and you can select a category to view. The national poll is also located on a link at this site under softball 1.

NJCAA Service Bureau
March 21, 2006
Place| College | Location | Record
1 Central Arizona College Coolidge, AZ 40-3
2 Santa Fe Comm Coll. Gainesville, FL 23-2
3 Manatee Comm. Coll. Bradenton, FL 30-3
4 Dixie State St. George UT 18-5
5 Arizona Western Yuma, AZ 24-11
6 Volunteer State Gallatin, TN 15-3
7 Temple Temple, TX 32-2
8 Pima Tucson, AZ 31-6
9 Indian River Ft. Pierce, FL 32-6
10 NEO Miami, OK 14-1
11 Chipola Marianna, FL 33-4
12 Chattanooga State Chattanooga, TN 20-7
13 Gulf Coast Panama City, FL 30-6
14 Otero La Junta, CO 25-4
15 Wabash Valley Mt. Carmel, IL 15-3
16 Eastern Wilburton, OK 22-3
17 Colby Colby, KS 18-8
18 Blinn Brenham, TX 21-13
19 Motlow State Lynchburg, TN 17-4
20 Bossier Parish Bossier City, LA 18-8

Other schools receiving votes
College | Location | Record
Carl Albert Poteau, OK 20-4
Georgia Perimeter Decatur, GA 13-5
Seminole State Seminole, OK 29-8
Young Harris Young Harris, GA 13-9