By Nicholas Huenefeld

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

ROSSFORD — For the second time in three seasons, the Owens Community College softball team captured the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Region XII championship with a 9-7 win in come-from-behind fashion over Delta College on Sunday at the Rossford Athletics Complex.

“Coming off a season that’s kind of been rough for us, we kind of knew that tournament play is a new start for us, and we really wanted to come out here and prove everybody wrong,” Rossford graduate Lola Luderman said. “They thought they had this idea of us, and we really want to take this as far as it can go. I think we can go a lot further than what people think.”

Owens, which has competed at the Division III level from 1999-2001 and 2019-present, has a long history with Delta in the Region XII tournament. The visiting Pioneers won the first eight tournament meetings all-time against the Express, but Owens has turned that around with a 4-3 record over the past three seasons.

“Honestly, it was nothing but heart and passion,” interim Owens coach Alexis Orner said. “They really wanted it and yeah they had some slips, but they came out on top in the end and showed how much they wanted it.”

The victory advances Owens (8-20) to the NJCAA Appalachian District championship series against Patrick & Henry Community College (28-24) May 10-11 at Martinsville, Va. The winner of that advances to the Division III National Tournament at Frost Stadium & Warner Park in Chattanooga, Tenn. May 22-25.

After splitting the first two games of the series on Saturday, Owens jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the second, highlighted by an RBI grounder from Elmwood graduate Kynzie Science.

The Pioneers (11-26) responded, however, by putting five runs across the plate in the third and eventually led 7-3 through four and a half innings.

Owens kicked it into high gear offensively after that, scoring twice in the fifth and four more times in the sixth to secure the victory.

A sacrifice fly from Allison Rhodes and an RBI single from Science accounted for the runs in the fifth. Emily Rank and Lily Goodwin each added a sacrifice fly in the sixth to tie the game.

The Express added their final two runs on a grounder from Rhodes and an RBI single up the middle from Science for the 9-7 margin.

“I feel like we watched the ball a lot better,” Science said of her team’s improved late-inning offensive performance. “Earlier, everyone was trying to be the hero and get the big hit, but I feel like we all realized that it’s not going to take one of us, it’s going to take the whole team to do this. We all started watching, and we took pitches that we liked. We weren’t going to let the ump or the pitcher take it from us.”

Reagan Mitchell, who pitched the final five innings in relief, retired the side 1-2-3 in the seventh to finish off the victory.

Science finished 2-for-4 with three RBI in Sunday’s win, pushing her tournament team-best RBI total to seven. Brianna Williams went 2-for-4 and finished a team-best 10-for-12 with five RBI in the series. Rhodes was 7-of-11 with six RBIs while the duo of Goodwin and Rank went 8-for-17 with six RBIs.

Luderman, who picked up the win in the circle in Saturday’s first game and hit her first home run of the season, got to play back at her old home field due to rain putting the Owens softball home field under water.

“Yesterday was one of the best games I think I’ve played in a while,” Luderman said. “It was so good to know that my teammates were right behind me and had my back. I came out strong in the circle, and my teammates were there for everything that I had. It was one of the best feelings ever.

“Coming back to my old stomping grounds where I broke records for my high school, hitting a home run kind of felt like déjà vu. But it’s a new era, and I’m so excited to continue my journey.”

Luderman battled through the injury bug this year, hitting .276 with a double and seven RBIs in the regular season. In the circle, she was 2-5 with a 7.96 ERA over 41.1 innings, which was second-most on the team.

“It’s been tough with an injury, but I kept pushing through and fighting for my team as much as they fight for me,” Luderman said. “It really gives me a reason to keep pushing and keep going, and I think they made every moment of this season worth it, and we’re going to keep going.”

Science, meanwhile, said she finished her senior year at Elmwood in a slump, and it carried over to this season, where she hit .222 with a double, six runs and eight RBIs in the regular season.

“I feel like it was a lot of pressure, but it was good pressure,” Science said. “It was tough for a lot of the sophomores this season. We didn’t have many girls come out, and we had to pick up a lot of players, so I feel like we have all been striving for our sophomores because they really wanted this, and all of us wanted it, too, for them.”

Luderman, Science and the rest of the Owens gang are one step away from the national tournament, a place the program has never been at the Division III level, although they made appearances at the Division II level in 2005, 2011 and 2015 with a national runner-up finish in 2011.

“I think this is a huge confidence booster and that positivity is key,” Orner said. “If you’re negative, nothing good is ever going to happen. They were positive, knew they could do it and came out and got it done.”

Local talent helped lead two of the three previous Owens teams to make the national tournament. Eastwood’s Cassidy Rolf played on the 2015 team while Rossford’s Cortney Simmons and Leigh Zajac, Lake’s Jenae Caldwell, Elmwood’s Sarah Morgart and Otsego’s Jenny Shultz competed for the 2005 squad.

Maybe Luderman and Science can join that list.

“I expect the same thing that we got today,” Science said of the team’s chances next week. “There’s nothing for us to really lose. I mean, just go out and play our hearts out and if we win, great, if we don’t, we have this game. It was an awesome game and to end the season how we have, it’s pretty good.”