MOUNTAINEER SOFTBALL

Eastern Softball Defeats Team with a 21-0 Record
at Seminole Border Wars Tournament
Story by Staff – 04/06/09

Eastern softball team defeated Jefferson County, a team with a 21-0 record, during the Seminole State College Border Wars Tournament held on April 4.

Eastern competed against three of the top Junior College women's softball teams in America and won two out of the three games they played on Saturday.

Seminole invited eight of the top junior college women's softball teams in America from four states to play at their new softball complex. All of these programs are nationally ranked or former national champions in their respective classes or recent regional winners and national tournament teams.  From Oklahoma: NEO and Seminole. From Texas: Western Texas and Vernon Regional. From Missouri: Jefferson County and Crowder. From Kansas: Cowley County and Butler County. Eastern was invited LATE as the Johnson County Tournament in Overland Park, Kansas, which we were orginally invited to, was snowed out and we agreed to take Vernon Regional's place as they withdrew only last week at Seminole.

Eastern played three games on Saturday, April 4th:

First Game: Eastern 3 Butler, Kansas 2. Butler is ranked 17th. nationally in the most recent NJCAA poll.
Kelsey Reding pitched great game and got run support from Kendra White's big three- run home run in the bottom of the first inning. Those three runs held up for the win.

Second Game: Crowder, Missouri 5 Eastern 0
Karly Bitters took the loss here, only giving up 5 hits, and held Crowder to 1 run thru 5 innings. Rachel Filius relieved Karly in the 6th. inning and held the Lady Riders without a baserunner. The Crowder pitcher is now 15-2, one of the top juco pitchers in America.

Third Game: Eastern 12 Jefferson County, Missouri 2
Kelsey Reding pitched another gem here. Jefferson was 21-0 going into this game and has been ranked as high as 5th. nationally in this year's NJCAA Div. I poll. Eastern only had one hit thru 4 innings off the undefeated Jefferson pitcher, a single by Kendra White in the third inning. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Kelsey Reding hit her FIRST career home run, high school or college, high off the left field foul pole, to tie the score 1-1. In the top of the sixth inning, Jefferson's big three- hole hitter hit about a 350 ft. home run to put Jefferson back up 2-1. In the bottom of the sixth , Ashlyn Aston led off with a single and later tied the score 2-2 on a passed ball. Eastern sent 14 total hitters to the plate in the 6th. inning and scored 11 runs and eventually run-ruled the undefeated Jefferson team, on Darcy Casteel's long three- run home run to end the game, 12-2. Macey Moseley's hard single to left which went all the way to the left field wall scored two runs and put Eastern up 7-2. Ashlyn Aston's second hit of the inning drove in two runs and put Eastern ahead 9-2 before Casteel ended the game with her home run over the left field wall. Several Lady Mountaineers had a good sixth inning AT THE PLATE: Rachel Powers, Aston, Sarah Hayslip, White, Casteel, Bitters, Reding, Moseley, Sharla Bullard.

Eastern now returns to Region II action this week playing at Rose State on Tuesday and at Northern/Tonkawa on Thursday before the Easter break.