Tracing NIC's path to a softball title

The signs were there long ago that North Idaho College had the makings of an exceptional softball team this spring.

“The first week of our season I was writing in a journal and I put, ‘This team could win it if they learn to focus on the process and stick together,’” NIC coach Don Don Williams said Monday afternoon. “And I was just looking at that last night and I wrote that on the very first week of our season. Just preached it week in and week out, and they stuck to it, and believed.”

The Cardinals rolled to a 50-3 record this season, and capped it Monday by winning the Northwest Athletic Conference softball tournament at the Dwight Merkel Sports Complex in Spokane.

NIC won its last 23 games of the season.

23.

TWO OF the NIC players pointed toward a six-game stretch in Florida in early March as a sign of things to come.

NIC won all six games, by a combined score of 96-18.

“At that moment, I knew we were going to win the whole thing,” said redshirt sophomore second baseman Megan Carver, who plans to play at NAIA Keiser University in West Palm Beach, Fla., next year.

“ ... and the last day, the sophomores were saying these last two teams (Muskegon Community College and Kalamazoo Valley Community College) were our hardest competition last year and we lost to each of them last year by one run, and we blew them out of the water (21-5 and 19-5),” freshman pitcher Madi Mott said. “I knew then that we had a pretty dang good team, and we just had to stay focused to win.”

The Cardinals were an offensive juggernaut.

They boasted two of the top three home run hitters in the NWAC (Kalyna Korok and Ashlyn Winn, each with 20 homers), and the top two batters in shortstop Kayla Curtan (.578) and Carver (.517).

“I knew we had a good offense; it was just a matter of learning how to be disciplined, and put a good swing on a good pitch,” Williams said. “We got a new hitting facility last year (on campus), and we spent hours and hours in there. We were in there until 9 or 10 o’clock at night. And the freshmen bought in, and we just got better. I knew we had a potent offense, and I knew we had a good pitching staff. And a returning infield.”

“Don Don is just an amazing hitting coach, and she’s always emphasized to be selective and be disciplined,” said freshman left fielder Jori Kerr, who hit a three-run homer in the title game. “Since we got here in August, we’ve been working on our swings. I think we’re just a hitting team, and of course Madi dominates the mound, and that just helps so much. And there’s just a lot of energy and a lot of trust on this team, and I think that’s what got us to where we are.”

The addition of Mott, from Gladstone, Ore., strengthened the pitching staff.

She finished 29-1.

“Madi just got better every week,” Williams said. “And she’s an incredible kid, great work ethic, and she worked hard and took her game to the next level, and she just got better every week. Just a great performance from her this week.”

Mott, as you might expect, deflected the praise.

“Everything I did, pitching and batting, was for the sophomores, they know that,” said Mott, the starter and winning pitcher in all five games at the conference tournament. “I play for my team, and my team plays for me, and we just have a great bond. We just have a great trust in each other. We couldn’t have gotten this far without everyone.”

WILLIAMS HAS been the NIC softball coach since the program started in 1998. In 2007, the Cardinals won the second of back-to-back Region 18 titles, and were inches away from winning an NJCAA championship, before settling for second place.

“Both our 2007 team and this team had a lot of grit, and faced adversity and bounced back,” Williams said. “Any time you have a championship team, they have some of those same qualities, and this team and the 2007 team had that.

“Teams have been gunning for us all year, and they’ve handled the pressure. They had a target on their back all year ... I just truly believed they were going to come through and win it.”

Late on an unseasonably warm May afternoon, Williams was feeling pretty good — and not only because she just got cooled off when a couple team members emptied a water bucket on her.

“Only one team gets to end their season on a win,” Williams said, as NIC players and coaches around her celebrated and posed for photos. “This is the first time I’ve been able to end my season on a win, so pretty damn sweet.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.