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Mountaineer Softball Team Bobb Johnston 2006 Region II Softball Champions“We Are The Champions”The Eastern Oklahoma State College Lady Mountaineers earned their second consecutive berth in the National Junior College World Series by winning the Region II Championship again this year. Eastern will return to Florida to make a run at the national title sporting a 62-8 record. Eastern finished #7 last season in the National Tournament after defeating Northern in the Regional finals 7-6. The Lady Mountaineers entered the Regional Tournament last weekend at Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City as the #1 seed and quickly dispatched #8 seed Rose State 15-1 in five innings, scoring virtually at will. Karla Pittman, sophomore from North Canton, OH, went the distance scattering four hits and striking out seven. Pittman improved to 30-5 with the win. The second round proved a little stiffer as #4 seed Northeastern Oklahoma A&M put up more resistance. Ashley Graham, sophomore from Grand Prairie, TX, homered in the fourth, her sixth of the season, and the lead held up for the final 1-0. Sophomore Marjorie Johnson pitched the complete game striking out nine and allowing only one hit. Johnson moved her record to 29-2. Eastern stumbled in the winner’s final against Northern Oklahoma, the #2 seed and fell 2-0. Pittman started the game and went four innings before being relieved by Johnson. Shaky defense and little offense doomed the Lady Mountaineers to the loser’s bracket. Carl Albert eliminated NEO 9-7 to advance to face Eastern in the semi-final. Eastern won the coin flip and entered the bottom of the seventh tied at 0-0. With one out freshman Kasey Kimbrough, Hartshorne, jacked the third pitch she saw over the wall in right center for a walk-off homerun and the 1-0 victory. The shot brought her total to six for the season. Johnson pitched the complete game as Eastern outhit Carl Albert 5-1. Johnson struckout 13 and surrendered one single. The stage was set for the final between Eastern and Northern, a classic #1 versus #2 matchup. Eastern needed two wins to advance. Johnson took the circle again for the second straight game. Eastern won the coin flip again and Johnson sat the side down in order. Graham singled in the bottom of the first but was stranded. The pitching duel between Eastern’s Johnson and Northern’s Leslie Oakes ensued for the next few innings. Eastern threatened in the bottom of the third with back to back singles by Lesley Boyd and Graham and then loaded the bases with two outs as Brittney Day was hit by a pitch. Oakes struck out Kimbrough to end the threat. Northern failed again in the top of the fourth and Amy Tice, freshman from Oologah singled to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Claremore freshman Amanda Moseley came in to run for Tice and advanced to second on a caught foul ball. Rhonda McClung, freshman from Broken Arrow, couldn’t move Moseley to third and was thrown out at first for the second out. Panama freshman Laney Anderson singled on the second pitch to score Moseley from second. Anderson was later caught stealing to end the inning. Johnson struck out the side in the fifth and added two more strikeouts in the sixth and Eastern turned a tremendous 4-6-3 double play to end the game in the seventh as Eastern pulled out the 1-0 win. Drama was the name of the game in the deciding contest as both teams now faced elimination. Eastern lost the coin flip and were the visitors. With two outs in the top of the first Graham singled to left, Johnson was intentionally walked and Brittney Day single to center, scoring Graham from second. Johnson started the game and went four innings, giving way to Pittman in the fifth. Pittman inherited a 1-0 lead and proceeded to show why her nickname is “Pit Bull”. Northern led off the fifth with the top of their order. Melody Murphy, the only player to hit a homerun this season off either pitcher. Pittman induced Murphy to popout to Boyd at short before giving up a single to Zanie Cervantes, struckout Kasey Hobens, walked Kendall Hobens on eight pitches and striking out Benita Sanchez to end the inning. The Lady Mountaineers threatened to score again in the top of the sixth with back to back two out singles by Kimbrough and Tice. The challenge stalled with a foul out to the catcher by Jaclyn Mullaney, freshman from El Reno. Pittman coaxed consecutive flyouts to leftfield and a groundout to short to finish the sixth. Eastern entered the seventh inning in a familiar spot with a 1-0 lead with the heart of the order due up for Northern in the bottom of the inning. Norman freshman Caitlyn Crotty led off with a linedrive to first for the first out. Anderson singled to rightcenter. Boyd hammered the first pitch to her 250 feet to left for a two run homerun. Boyd also hit a three run shot in last year’s final against Northern. Graham flied out to right, followed by an intentional walk to Johnson and Day popped out to first to end Eastern’s half of the inning. With a three run lead Pittman still couldn’t relax. Ashley Geter led off the bottom of the inning with a single to left. Brittney Day came up with back to back great plays at second base on defense to throw out Murphy and Cervantes as Geter advanced to third. Fittingly, Kasey Hobens hit a one-hopper back to the circle and Pittman tossed to first to seal the win and the berth to the National Tournament. Johnson got the win and Pittman picked up the save. Johnson finished the tournament 32-2 and Pittman 30-6. Johnson’s 32 wins set a new school record, previously held by Pittman. Pittman won 30 last season to set the old record. Broken records are nothing new to this year’s team. The 2006 team has already broken 21 school records and still has the national tournament to add to the list or increase the new records. The new team records are: 62 wins, 41 shutouts, 55 homeruns, 12 triples, 371 runs scored, 163 walks, 661 strikeouts by pitching staff, .412 Team ERA, .119 Opponents Batting Average, 2 homeruns given up, surrendering only 30 extra base hits. Individual records are: 447 strikouts, Marge Johnson; ERA .183, Marge Johnson; Opponents Batting Average, Marge Johnson; 32 wins, Marge Johnson; 18 Homeruns hit, Marge Johnson, 3 triples, Marge Johnson, 68 RBI’s, Marge Johnson; 47 walks, Marge Johnson and 57 runs scored, Marge Johnson and Laney Anderson. Not to be lost in these new records are the accomplishments of other players who also broke previous records but didn’t lead the team this season. Lesley Boyd scored 50 runs, had 80 hits, 15 doubles, 53 RBI’s and hit six homeruns. Ashley Graham was second on the team with 8 homeruns, 18 doubles, 79 hits and scored 52 runs. Anderson had 77 hitsand 15 doubles. Brittney Day added 72 hits and 3 homeruns. Jaclyn Mullaney had 6 homeruns, 60 hits and 14 doubles. Amy Tice had 62 hits, 8 doubles and 2 homeruns. Kasey Kimbrough had 6 homeruns. Also adding to the team total in homeruns were Anderson with 1, Rhonda McClung 2 and Caitlyn Crotty 3. Defense seemed to be the overlooked facet of this team. Eastern committed only 21 errors and gave up only 66 runs in 70 games. Another area that superb performances were turned in that didn’t make the record book was pitching. Karla Pittman won 30 games, for the second year in a row. She also struckout 214 while only walking 45. Pittman gave up only one homerun, 2 triples and 20 doubles all season and opponents batted 0.176 against her. Her ERA was 0.642. Maybe even more amazing, she threw 593 first pitch strikes to 879 batters while only going to a full count 78 times. Marge Johnson shattered the previous school record for strikeouts, 354 set by Sarah Seagraves two years ago, with 447. Seagraves who was ranked #4 All Time in NJCAA history was bumped to fifth. Johnson’s total now has her in second place, trailing #1 by seven strikeouts. A very reachable goal during the National Tournament. Her 1.94 strikeout per inning average and 0.183 ERA would place her #1 All-Time if the season ended today.
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