CHAMPAIGN — The hopes for a third straight National Tournament appearance for the Danville Area Community College softball team are in the hands of the NJCAA Division II selection committee after a 6-3 loss to St. Louis Community College in Central District Tournament.
DACC, which lost a heartbreaking 7-5 game in nine innings on Friday to top-rated Parkland College, needed a win over St. Louis and two more over Parkland to secure the automatic berth from the Central District.
After allowing a first-inning home run to Gretchen Trelio of the Archers, the Jaguars answered with a 3-run second highlighted by a run-scoring single by sophomore Amaria Wall and sophomore left-hander Rylee Richey settled in, striking out five over the next three innings.
But, things started to change in that fourth inning.
Richey, who was 22-4 on the season, got assistance from DACC trainer Casey Hug in that fourth inning.
“Rylee was pitching with a jammed thumb,’’ DACC coach Matt Cervantes said. “She injured it in the first game (Friday) and it just kept getting worse. He performance on Friday was gutsy. We didn’t know what she could give us today, but she gave it everything she had.’’
The Jaguars went to freshman Lauren Kehl in the fifth inning and the Archers pulled with a run on a solo home run by Morgan Jones.
St. Louis would tie the game in the sixth inning and take the lead for good with a 3-run seventh inning utilizing aggressive base running and multiple bunt plays.
“When Rylee is in the circle, she neutralizes a lot of that with strikeouts,’’ said Cervantes, as Richey is fourth in the country with 226 strikeouts in 180.1 innings. “When you have a pitcher doing that job, it takes away some of that aggressive style of play.
“When she went out, we really needed to step up defensively and make some plays. It just didn’t happen.’’
All three runs in the seventh along with the single run in the sixth for St. Louis were unearned because of DACC fielding errors.
“As I just told them, one game doesn’t define them,’’ Cervantes said. “They killed it this season. I’m proud of them. I’m proud of what they brought to the table this season.’’
And it didn’t help that after their 3-run second inning, the Jaguars managed just one hit and four baserunners in the next five frames.
“We didn’t really adjust and we needed to,’’ Cervantes said. “We just kept putting the ball up in the air and we were making it easy on them.’’
DACC had only 1 strikeout in the contest, but 10 of the other 20 outs were recorded on either fly balls or pop outs.
With the loss, the Jaguars fall to 34-15 on the season and they will now wait to find out if they have secured an at-large berth in the National Tournament to be played in Spartanburg, S.C.
“If an at-large bid happens, it happens,’’ Cervantes aid. “On Friday, we went toe-to-toe with the No. 1 team in the country, and we did that every time our No. 1 pitcher was in the circle.’’
Actually, DACC and Pearl River are the only two NJCAA Division II Schools to have beaten Parkland this season. The Jaguars defeated the Cobras 2-0 on April 20.
Additionally, the extra-inning game with the Cobras on Friday was just the sixth one this season for Parkland. Their other five came against Pearl River (twice), Copiah-Lincoln, Mississippi Delta and Hinds.
“If it comes down to our schedule, I think every team we played this year, except for two, had winning records,’’ said Cervantes, when asked to make his case for an at-large berth. “We also have wins over ranked teams like Parkland and Spoon River. We beat Spoon River twice and they were No. 16 in the final poll. That was with our No. 1 pitcher (Richey) and they never beat her.’’
But, did Saturday’s loss to St. Louis hurt their chances?
“I hope not. We have one of the best pitchers in the country and we are a completely different team with her,’’ Cervantes said. “I think the outcome of that game is a lot different is Rylee was able to finish.’’
The official pairings for the NJCAA Division II National Tournament will be announced at 11 a.m. today on the NJCAA Network.
At Parkland College, Champaign Central District Tournament St. Louis Community College 6, Danville Area Community College 3
St. Louis 100 011 3 — 6 7 3
Danville Area 030 000 0 — 3 4 2
WP — Jaden Howard. LP — Lauren Kehl. Two or more hits — St. Louis: Gretchen Trelio 2, Sydney Quinones 2. DACC: Amaria Wall 2. HR — St. Louis: Trelio, Morgan Jones. RBIs — St. Louis: Gabrielle Bax 2, Quinones 2, Trelio 1, Jones 1. DACC: Wall 1.
Records — St. Louis Community College 42-11 overall. Danville Area Community College 34-15 overall.