First time in program history (!!!) they go to the dance. Run ruled Oregon State to win, and get the NCAA AQ tiebreaker after taking the series against SMC earlier in the year
Massive credit to Coach Carbonatto
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This is so cool. The softball team has long been one of the most challenged sports at SCU, consistently stringing together brutal seasons. To see that the program has turned around and reached this kind of success warms my heart. Go Broncos!
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More of our teams are now getting to NCAA’s. Men’s Golf in also. Now we need MBB. They have the most resources but still haven’t been able to break the spell…
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selected to the Tucson regional with No. 13 seed Arizona
Grand Canyon and Ole Miss also there
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Totally agree with the comments especially Patty Mac. I remember when wins were in low single digits and losses were massive. I wondered why we even had a program it was so bad. Congratulations to the players and coaches. I hope we can start recruiting more local talent as a lot of girls from Mitty, St Francis and other good programs go to the larger name schools. Hopefully this is the start and softball can reach the heights of women’s soccer. I also like reading about it in the local paper. Our new AD seems to be off to a good start. As to mens BB it is very competitive and we have had several 20 win seasons so I still believe we are heading in the right direction.
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Yes, great progress in the softball program. Hopefully, this season becomes the foundation for many years (decades?) of success. I always thought SCU squandered an opportunity to catapult MBB off of the success of the Nash years. Gonzaga certainly didn’t squander their Cinderella years…
Flipping over to baseball: I caught a bit of a USD-SCU game on ESPN+ over the weekend. The team records astonished me. SCU’s record was 19-25 IIRC. Toreros’ record, as of that day, was 20-27 overall, but 14-4 in conference. Seriously, USD went 6-23 out of conference but are in 1st place in WCC? How bad is the WCC in baseball?
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This is truly INCREDIBLE and great to see!
When i was at SCU, the team played for two seasons with one pitcher that had a rotator cuff injury–couldn’t throw the ball overhand to first base on bunts and opposing teams knew it. And was so low on players, the coach (fired shortly thereafter for his misdeeds) suited up a JC sibling of another player.
With a great on-campus diamond to play on (back in those days, they played on a city field at the corner of lafayette and el camino), I am somewhat surprised its taken this long to rise to the top. But IMO softball is only as good as your pitching staff and anyone who is good, and can get in, is going PAC 2 or Big 16.
Congrats to the team and best of luck!
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Watched the game with my neighbor who is a proud Wildcat. It occurred to me that if someone would have asked me who would make it to the NCAAs first, softball or men’s basketball, I would have decisively bet on men’s basketball given softball’s past. LOL. Great turnaround by Coach Carbonatto and the team!
Broncos started off well when Alley sent a pitch to New Mexico. Things seemed to unravel in the 2nd when Ferguson let a pitch slip out of her hand (the first of two inexplicable occasions) as the Wildcats racked up 5 runs.
Broncos valiantly made a game of it in the 4th, storming back with 4. But the wildcats ultimately poured it on as the Broncos seemed a bit out of sorts. Nail in the coffin was a walk-off grand slam to invoke the 8-run rule. Ugh.
Today’s 3:30 do-or-die tilt is against the villainous Grand Canyon.
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