SENATOBIA - On pins and needles, the Northwest softball team waited with anticipation and anxiousness during Tuesday's NJCAA Division II World Series selection show.
When the Rangers were revealed on-screen as one of the four at-large bids to the national tournament, cheers and tears of jubilation filled the team facility, with Northwest earning a second chance to continue its season.
"They deserve it so much," Northwest coach
Chelsea Bramlett said. "They have had a record season with 42 wins and the team has been ranked in the Top 15 all year. They work hard, and I just really thought that they deserved another shot to go play at the national level."
At 42-10 overall and a No. 11 national ranking to end the regular season, this Northwest team will do something only one other team has done before. Bramlett's 2022 squad made history as the program's first team to advance to the NJCAA Division II World Series, doing so with an automatic bid as the NJCAA Region 23 Champions.
However, this year's team has been special in its own right. The Rangers captured the most victories in a single-season and became the first Northwest softball team to finish with 40-plus wins. The team also posted a 21-7 record within the MACCC and won nine games against nationally-ranked opponents.
Additionally, several players have rewritten the record books this season, including sophomores
Carly Dunigan and
Ellie Fryar, both of whom remain tied for the single-season program record in triples (9), as well as the career record (12). Both also have 16 doubles this season, tying them for fifth in a single-season as part of the Rangers' new single-season record of 105 doubles.
Northwest has also shattered the team record for triples (33) and saves (9), the latter due mostly to
Abby Rogers' single-season record of eight saves. A native of Brandon, Rogers recently led the NJCAA in saves and is still in the top five, while also owning the Rangers' career record of 10.
Elsewhere, several sophomores have scattered their names throughout the record books.
Sommer Tyes' 18 home runs are tied for the second-most in a single season, joining McKaylee "K.K." Polk's total from 2022 and trailing Polk's single-season record of 24 from 2023. For her career, Tyes has 21 homers, only third behind Polk's 42 (2022-23) and Saige Koczka (26; 2020-22).
In the circle,
Morgen Brewton holds a 24-3 record this season, tied for third in single-season wins with Lacie McCulley-Cook (2005). The Mobile, Ala. native also has 159 strikeouts this season, second only to Gabby Dickerson's 239 total from the 2022 campaign.
Brewton also ranks high in both single-season and career records for appearances, complete games, innings pitched and career wins.
Northwest was one of only four at-large bids into the NJCAA Division II World Series, aided by those nine wins against ranked opponents and a 2-2 stretch in the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament, which included two victories against Northeast, which flip-flopped from No. 11 to No. 13 during the course of the postseason.Â
As the No. 9 seed in the tournament, the Rangers will face off with No. 8 seed Phoenix College on Monday, May 19 at 3 P.M. The winner advances to face the winner of No. 1 seed St. Johns River State and the winning team from the play-in matchup between 16th-seed Potomac State and No. 17 seed Mercer County.
All games will air on the
NJCAA Network, with a subscription required. Ticket details will be released when made available.