Randall Twirls Complete Game Shutout, Grizzlies Top Paris to Open NJCAA World Series

YUMA, Ariz. – The first taste of the 2025 NJCAA Division 1 World Series was sweet for the Butler Community College softball team.

Freshman pitcher Ellie Randall threw seven shutout innings as the ninth-seeded Butler Grizzlies defeated the eighth-seeded Paris Dragons 3-0 in the second round on Monday afternoon at the Pacific Avenue Athletic Complex.

Butler (45-7) moves on to the quarterfinals and will play the winner between No. 1 seed Florida SouthWestern and No. 17 seed Crowder College on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. MST (3:30 CST). FSW and Crowder play on Tuesday at 11 a.m. MST.

Randall (W, 17-2), a freshman out of Benton, Kan., threw her team-high seventh complete game of the season, holding Paris (50-10) scoreless for the first time this season in her 7.0 innings of work. Randall held Paris, the nation's leading home run hitting team, (103 entering Monday's game), to four hits which is also a season-low.

She worked around traffic on the bases in each inning as Paris stranded 10 baserunners. Randall finished with five walks, three hit batters and two strikeouts.

Things got dicey in the bottom of the seventh with Butler holding a 3-0 lead as a base hit from the Dragons put runners on second and third with two outs. The next batter up was the Dragon's Gabby Sosa, the nation's leader in home runs (40) and RBI (115). Butler intentionally walked her to load the bases and then got a line out to sophomore shortstop Kory Schoenfeld from the next batter to seal the victory. Sosa finished 1-3 with Randall's only two strikeouts on the afternoon coming against her.

The Grizzlies outhit Paris 10-4 but stranded eight base runners of their own.

Sophomore Kim Yepez pushed a ball through the right side with two outs to score sophomore Kyrsten Moran for the game's first run in the top of the first. Sophomore Kylie Forney followed with a double that pushed Yepez to third and Schoenfeld drove in Yepez with a single to make it a two-run Grizzly first.

Butler threatened even more in the second inning, having the bases loaded for two different batters. Only one run came across though as sophomore Jenna Jobe singled in freshman Kyler Demel to make it a 3-0 lead, one that stuck through the end of the game. The Butler offense went three up, three down in the fourth and fifth innings and stranded a single baserunner in the third, sixth and seventh.

Jobe finished 2-4 with an RBI while Demel was 2-3 with a run scored.

Laci Berecochea had two of the Dragon's four hits.

Hadison Fults (L, 18-4) threw all seven innings for Paris. Only one of her three runs given up were earned and she struck out five and walked none.

The Dragons will play an elimination game on Wednesday at 9 a.m. MST

NOTES:

• Butler is now 24-22 all-time in the NJCAA D1 World Series.
• Head coach Morgan Bohanan is now 2-2 leading the Grizzlies in the World Series.
• Butler is now 3-4 all-time in World Series games played in Yuma.
• Butler is 9-5 all-time in its first game at the NJCAA D1 World Series.
• The shutout win in the World Series was the fourth in program history.
  • 2008, 3-0 win over Wabash Valley
  • 2016, 10-0 win over Chipola
  • 2017, 9-0 win over Central Arizona
  • 2025, 3-0 win over Paris
• The game was the first time Butler and Paris have matched up in the NJCAA D1 World Series.
• Butler is 32-3 this season when scoring first.