North Platte –The North Platte Community College Knights softball team will be the number one seed in the upcoming Region IX Division II Softball Tournament in Columbus.
The tournament will begin on Thursday, April 28 at 5 pm with the number two seed Central Community College facing the number three seed Southeast Community College. The winner of that game will advance to play North Platte at 7:30 pm on Thursday.
On Friday at 10 am, there will be an elimination game between the losers of games one and two. The winner of that game will face the winner of game two in the finals at 12:30 pm. If both teams have one loss each, an if necessary game will be played at 3 pm on Friday.
The Knights are 15-28 on the season and are 6-2 in Region IX Division II play. The Knights are batting .415 as a team with 29 home runs. Makenzi DeCrow leads the Knights and the region with 14 home runs. Shelby Belloni leads the Knights in batting with a .488 average. Sara Villalobos leads the region with a .525 on base percentage.
In the ring, the Knights have a 5.50 team earned run average. Samantha Foster has a 3.86 ERA with 32 strike outs. Foster is 8-7 on the season. Villalobos has a 4.87 ERA in 20 games and 22 strikeouts.
The Central Community College Lady Raiders are the number two seed in the tournament. The Lady Raiders are 17-28 and 4-4 in Region IX play. The Lady Raiders are batting .320 as a team with 24 home runs. Jacy Bretschneider leads Central with a .436 batting average and a .486 on base percentage. Jayd Roberts has eight home runs for the Lady Raiders.
Roberts is 11-12 on the season with a 4.03 ERA. She has struck out 86 batters on the season. Brooke Behnk has a 5.82 ERA and is 4-12 on the season with 62 strikeouts. The Lady Raiders have a team 5.19 ERA.
Southeast Community College Lady Storm is the third seed of the tournament. The Lady Storm are 22-23-1 on the season, but are 2-6 in Region IX Division II play.
The Lady Storm are batting .314 as a team with 29 home runs. Megan Hartman leads the Lady Storm with a .389 batting average, six home runs and a .461 on base percentage. Alyssa Bauer is batting .387 and has a .457 on base percentage.
In the ring, the Lady Storm are led by Hartman. Hartman has a 13-10 record, a 3.85 ERA and has struck out 207 batters. The Lady Storm have a 5.36 team ERA.
The tournament is a double elimination tournament. The winner of the tournament will host the winner of the Region 11b in the District G tournament on May 7-8.
The Knights games in the tournament will be broadcast on ESPN 1410 radio and on the internet at www.northplattepost.com.