SENATOBIA - After a five-day, much-anticipated wait, Northwest has learned its tournament seeding and first round opponent for next week's NJCAA Division II Softball Championship.
Scheduled for May 24-28 at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala., the Rangers will enter the tournament as a No. 5 seed and will open up on Tuesday against the No. 12 seed, Jackson College (Mich.).
Jackson College comes into the tournament with a 34-12 overall record after earning the automatic bid out of Region 12 and the Great Lakes District. The Jets are making their first appearance in the NJCAA Division II Softball Championship and are hitting .366 as a team. The Jets are led at the plate by a trio of .400 batters in Addison Hudson (.467), Carolina Kern (.441) and Kylee Yon (.410). Jackson College has hit 42 home runs as a team, led by 12 from Paige Thomson and 10 from Emily Breslin.
Jackson College also has two solid arms in the circle, led by Breslin's 2.05 earned run average and 109 strikeouts. The Jets also have Ellie Greene, who has tossed 66 strikeouts with a 12-2 record and 2.05 ERA.
Northwest (35-13) is making its first-ever appearance in the NJCAA Division II Softball Championship and are coming off a 4-0 run in last week's NJCAA Region 23 Tournament in Wesson. The Rangers defeated Northeast twice and eighth-ranked LSU Eunice twice to claim the program's first region title. (LSU Eunice has also qualified for the NJCAA Division II Softball Championship as the No. 6 seed.)
Northwest is currently batting .329 at the plate, led by freshman
McKaylee Polk's .434 batting average. The freshman from Senatobia leads the team in doubles (18), home runs (18), runs batted in (59) and a whopping .914 slugging percentage.
Five other Rangers are batting over .300 for the season, including sophomores
Laila Armstrong (.426) and
Saige Koczka (.401). Armstrong, the reigning MACCC Player of the Week, batted .571 during the Region 23 Tournament run and has a single-season record of 42 stolen bases on the season. Koczka, an NJCAA and NFCA All-American in 2021, has racked up 12 doubles, 12 home runs and 51 RBIs for the season.
In the circle, pitcher
Gabby Dickerson continues to rewrite the Northwest record books with a sensational freshman season. The Olive Branch native has a 24-7 individual record and has a single-season record 216 strikeouts, which also ranks second all-time in the career strikeout records. Dickerson has gone the distance in 15 games this season and has logged over 180 innings of work.
All games in the NJCAA Division II Championship will be carried by the
NJCAA Network. Fans wishing to watch the Rangers can purchase a one-day pass for $10 or a tournament pass for $25. Tickets are $12 per person, with tournament passes available for $35 per person. Admission is free for children 12 and under.
