The North Idaho College softball team outscored the Colorado Northwestern Spartans 44-2 in a four-game sweep May 2 and 3 at Memorial Field in Coeur d’Alene.
The Cardinals will be the No. 3 seed heading into the Region 18 tournament and will play sixth-seeded Western Nevada College in Twin Falls May 7 in the opening round of the tournament.
“We need to go in there playing one game at a time and we can’t look past Western Nevada at that first game,” NIC head coach Don Don Williams said. “Everybody’s been taking games from everybody all season long, so we just have to play one pitch at a time, one inning at a time.”
The winner of the tournament will advance to the NJCAA national tournament in St. George, Utah, May 14-17.
“Our expectations as a team is to win regionals and go on to nationals, and to do well, we’re going to need to play as a team,” NIC third baseman Madison Anthony said. “Everybody’s going to have to do their job.”
It was also Sophomore Day May 3 and four sophomores – Kylene Hatton, Allison Paladeni, Hunter Allen and Laura Potts – were honored between the first and second game.
“All season it’s just been a grind pretty much and it’s been challenging since how young the team is,” Hatton said. “But it was really bittersweet today because we’ve all kind of realized that we’re only going to be playing together for another couple weeks.”
The Cardinals hit the ball well up and down their lineup.
NIC beat Colorado Northwestern 8-0 in five innings in the first game on May 3 and 10-2 in five innings in the second game.
Allen and Miranda Powless combined for the pitching shutout in the first game.
Hayden Fields and Paladeni homered. Paladeni’s home run ended the first game early due to the eight-run mercy rule.
NIC scored eight runs in the first two innings of the second game on May 3. Anthony blasted a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning to put the Cardinals up 10-2.
On May 2, NIC won the first game 18-0 in five innings and 8-0 in six innings.
The Cardinals scored eight runs in the bottom of the second inning during the first game of the day. It was highlighted by a solo home run by Samantha Luna, three RBIs by Anthony and a two-run home run by Hayden Fields.
The Cardinals scored six runs the following inning, which included a two-run home run by Luna.
In the second game, Paladeni hit a two-run home run to center in the bottom of the fourth inning to put the Cardinals up 4-0.
“I think honestly we should have been able to hit like that all season,” Hatton said.
Hatton said NIC’s lack of experience hurt them as they struggled to produce runs with runners on base at times this season.
She said this weekend NIC had timely hitting.
“We’re honestly one of the top hitting teams in the league,” she said.
NIC improved its record to 35-20 overall and 30-16 in the SWAC after the sweep.
