Last week, I commentated on the USCAA & NCCAA Softball National Championships, in Ohio and Virginia, respectively. Both tournaments had exciting moments, although the weather had its own say throughout the week as well.

The USCAA, in fact, shortened its championship because rain had forced administrators to change the format to single-elimination, as Lindenwood-Belleville won a second straight national championship by virtue of taking the Winner’s Bracket Final over St. Mary-of-the-Woods. One of the highlights from the tournament was a no-hitter from SMWC pitcher Brooke Jordan, in a win over Penn State Mont Alto. Jordan was also effective as a batter, going 2-for-3 in the 2-0 loss to the Lady Lynx that was ultimately the Championship Game. Overall 14 games finished out of the 18 scheduled, with Game 15 in progress when the tournament officially ended on Wednesday.

A 7-hour drive straight from Akron to Roanoke followed, in which I drove through multiple areas under tornado warnings. More rain came to Roanoke on early Thursday morning, but by Friday the skies had cleared, and the NCCAA was able to get all its scheduled games in by Saturday night. Championship Saturday was one to remember for the Shorter Hawks from Rome, Georgia. After defeating Oklahoma Christian 10-0 in 5 innings earlier that morning (due to the 8-run rule), Shorter faced the Eagles once again, this time in the championship round. After being no-hit through 6.2 innings, OCU’s Monique Elliott scored on an RBI from Sarah Endres, the first run given up all tournament by the Hawks. Shorter would win in the 9th inning on a walk-off RBI from Kayla Cooper, giving the Hawks the 2014 National Championship, their 4th Championship of the Spring season.

This past week provided some great softball, with a lot of memories for each player to take away. It will be interesting to see the new memories made in 2015.