DODGE CITY, Kan. – Following a one-year hiatus from the NJCAA Division 1 Softball National Tournament, the Butler Community College softball team took one of the more difficult paths through the NJCAA Division 1 Softball Plains District Tournament by reeling off wins in five-straight elimination games to claim their eighth NJCAA Region 6 Title in the past nine years and punch their ticket to Yuma, Arizona for the 2025 World Series.

After being in the driver’s seat of the 2024 tournament and falling in back-to-back championship games at the hands of Hutchinson to see their run of seven-straight Region 6 Titles snapped, the Grizzlies saw four of their four of their six wins come in run-rule fashion as BCC scored a tournament-high 69 runs across seven games and eclipsed the 10-run mark three times which included an 18-run outing against Garden City in the consolation bracket finals to advance to the Region Championship game.  

Butler opened their tournament as the number one seed with a convincing 14-2 win in five innings over Pratt Community College before suffering an opening day defeat by a score of 4-2 against fourth-seeded Garden City Community College. The Grizzlies never led in the contest against the Broncbusters and were stymied offensively by being held to four hits (all singles) while stranding six runners and being unable to take advantage of four GCCC errors.

Facing elimination against six-seed Colby to open their second day of the tournament, Butler showed a renewed focus after two innings of play by overcoming a 2-0 deficit with a five-run bottom of the third followed by a one-run fourth and six-run fifth to blitz the Trojans to a 12-4 win in five innings and set up a Saturday night elimination game between the top two teams in the tournament after seeing two seed Hutchinson also fall on day one. In the rubber match between the Grizzlies and Blue Dragons after seeing the two teams split their four regular season contests, Butler built a five-run lead over the first five innings of play while limiting Hutchinson to just three hits in the same span with BCC seemingly looking like they would cruise to a second-straight win in the tournament. HCC didn’t let things come quite so easily, however, as a three-run sixth allowed Hutchinson to get back within two at 5-3 before seeing three defensive miscues in the bottom of the inning allow BCC to plate three runs of their own despite being held hitless in the inning to give the Grizzlies an 8-3 advantage going to the seventh with Butler finishing off the game with a quick inning to eliminate the Blue Dragons.

Needing to pick up two victories on Sunday to keep their season alive, Butler wasted no time in jumping on Garden City starting pitcher Yina Ballesta Vargas in the rematch from less than 48 hours earlier as BCC scored eight runs in the first inning and never let their foot off the gas by adding four runs in the second as well as three runs in both the third and fourth innings to blitz GCCC in an 18-6, five-inning victory. The win set up a matchup against the lone unbeaten left in the tournament Barton as the Grizzlies took the offensive momentum from their first game of the day and scored another nine runs with a two-run second and seven-run fifth while holding Barton to just one run on four hits to pick up another run-rule victory and save their pitching for a winner-take-all championship game on Monday afternoon.

The experience of being in the Monday elimination game last year proved to be beneficial for Butler as Butler scored three runs across the first two innings of play and knocked Barton starting pitcher Meleia Ingram out of the game after 1.1 innings of work. BCC responded by plating a single run in the third along with a run in the top of the fifth to get back within one at 3-2 before seeing a three-run bottom of the fifth allowed the Grizzlies to once again have some breathing room with a four-run advantage. A one-out RBI groundout gave Barton one of the runs back in the top of the sixth which was followed by a scoreless bottom half of the inning as BCC needed just three outs in the top of the seventh to pick up the Region 6 Title. As the saying so often goes, the final three outs of a game are often the hardest and once again proved to be the case as a leadoff infield single and pair of two-out RBI base hits brought Barton within a run with the game-tying run on base before a game-ending flyout to right field which gave BCC a 6-5 victory to deny the Cougars their first World Series appearance since 1993.

With NJCAA Region 6 and NJCAA Plains District Tournament Title plaques secured, Butler will now turn their attention toward the 2025 NJCAA Division 1 Softball World Series that will take place May 19-24 at the Pacific Avenue Athletic Complex in Yuma, Arizona. Two of the last three NJCAA D1 Softball World Series appearances for Butler have come in Yuma with the Grizzlies finishing fifth in 2021 and dropping a pair of games in the 2022 World Series held at the Pacific Avenue Athletic Complex. Entering the World Series, Butler has won 29 of their past 31 games to hold the number 16 national ranking with a 44-7 overall record.