Whether it be home (22-3), away (14-1) or on a neutral playing field (6-2), KCC’s softball team has been on an absolute tear all year, with hopes now to extend their dominance a couple more weeks after reaching the NJCAA Division II Region IV Final Four.
Currently sitting at 42-6 (.875%), the Cavaliers consistently have been one of the most dominant offenses within the entire region. During this season, in regard specifically to Region IV, KCC ranks first as a team in total bases (926), hits (617), runs (492), RBIs (443), stolen bases (149), slugging percentage (.638), on-base percentage (.483) and batting average (.425).
“This is a team that can put eight runs on you in a blink of an eye and do it multiple times,” Cavaliers head softball coach Keith Cooper said. “And that’s the great thing about it is they can hit the ball frequently, hit it hard and make plays.
“It’s just a unique situation that we find ourselves in where we can be competitive and do the little things we need to do. ... The girls just don’t stop, even if they have a bad at-bat.”
Along with its offensive dominance, KCC also has had a stellar six-player pitching rotation — Jaelyn Latimer, Katie Newberry, Jordyn Butcher, Koralie Morin, Dylann Rambally and Ella White — that collectively ranks second within the Region IV in shutouts (11), third in batting average against (.251%) and fourth in WHIP (1.29) and ERA (3.22).
A large part of the Cavaliers’ success between all three phases of the diamond can be directly correlated to their newfound talent from across the country’s northern border.
Out of its 21-player roster, nine players — Abby Lorenz, Estelle Audette, Marguerite Brown, Takoda Morris, Emily Jezowski, Butcher, Morin, Newberry, and Rambally — have joined the team all the way from Canada, with Butcher, Lorenz, Morris and Rambally all coming from the same hometown in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
“We started recruiting Canadians a couple of years ago, when we were down in a tournament in St. Louis for Halloween,” Cooper said. “I came across a former coach down there — Missouri 2021 Hall of Fame inductee Celeste Knierim — and just talking with her, she said her secret was to not sleep on the Canadian girls because there’s a lot of talent up there that gets overlooked.
“...For us, it started with Kaitlynn Heale, and it led to another player, and then another player, and it’s just kind of spread from there,” he added. “Now, we are establishing a good pipeline with about five travel clubs in Canada across the country, and so now that we’ve gotten some pipeline established, it’s getting a lot easier [to recruit].”
Cooper’s decision to recruit players from outside the United States has proven to do wonders for this year’s squad that’s now set to compete in this year’s Final Four of the NJCAA Division II Region IV Championship.
At 2 p.m. Saturday, KCC will go toe-to-toe with Bryant & Stratton College (Wisc.) in the semifinal round at Black Hawk College in Moline, where the winner is set to advance to face the winner of Madison/Rock Valley at 6 p.m. later in the day.
If the Cavaliers go 2-0 on Saturday, then they would advance to the NJCAA Division II World Series for the first time since 2019.
“We’ve played Bryant & Stratton every year, and we always split with them,” Cooper said ahead of Saturday. “We seem to match up well with them and Madison, and we didn’t get a chance to play Rock Valley this season because we got rained out.
“ ... I think we match up well with all of them, and I think they will be tough battles, but I think our girls are ready for the challenge, and I think they will rise up.”
In order to possibly become Region IV champions for the third time during Cooper’s seven-year tenure as head coach, the Cavaliers will need their star standouts to continue their dominance.
<strong>Killer B’s at the plate</strong>
When it comes to hitting, KCC has been led by none other than a pair of Canadians in Butcher and Brown, who both rank in the top five as individual leaders within the Region IV in certain hitting categories.
In 157 at-bats, Butcher has gone on to record a team-best 20 home runs, which ranks second in the region. Butcher also ranks second in batting average (.516) and RBIs (69).
Brown is nearly just as deadly in 150 at-bats, with 67 RBIs (tied for fourth) and 15 home runs (tied for fifth).
“Butcher and Brown have become really good friends, but not only that, they also compete with each other,” Cooper said. “If one of them hits a home run, the other wants to hit a home run, and if one drives in a couple of runs, the other wants to drive in more runs.
“So, they are going neck-and-neck, and that’s providing a lot of spark.”
<strong>Pitching Prowess</strong>
Led by Latimer, who’s tossed 81 1/3 innings, giving up 48 runs (32 earned) and 73 hits with 84 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.75 and WHIP of 1.34 en route to a 9-2 record on the rubber, the Cavaliers have been able to rely on any one of their six-pitcher rotation to get the job done.
All six of KCC’s pitchers have gone on to win five-plus games with a combined ERA of 3.22 in 309 innings pitched. More impressively, the Cavaliers hurlers have gone on to combine for more strikeouts (372) than hits given up (286) as a team, as well as combining for a walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP) of 1.29 between all of their pitchers.
“I think the WHIP is the most important stat pitching-wise because that’s runners that are on base, which leads to bad things and so we try and make sure we limit the amount of walks and hits and focus on getting outs,” Cooper said.