COLBY, Kan. – Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Division 1 Softball has crowned regular season co-champions with both Butler Community College and Hutchinson Community earning a share of the title.

Ahead of the NJCAA Region 6/NJCAA Plains District Softball Tournament this weekend, the Grizzlies and Blue Dragons both finished the 32-game conference slate with a conference record of 27-5 overall as the two teams split their four-game conference series against one another and dropped one game each to Barton, Dodge City, and Garden City. For Butler, it is the 19th regular season crown in program history and fourth in the past five years while Hutchinson earns its sixth conference title and second league crown in the past three seasons.

With both teams earning a share of the KJCCC regular season title and the tiebreaker process coming down to a random draw, Butler has earned the number one seed in the upcoming NJCAA Plains District Tournament while Hutchinson will be the number two seed in the tournament. Following the Blue Dragons is number three seed Barton, number four seed Garden City, number five seed Dodge City, number six seed Colby, number seven seed Seward County, and number eight seed Pratt.

Tournament play is set to begin on Friday, May 2nd at 12 PM at Legends Park in Dodge City with top overall seed Butler taking on eighth-seeded Pratt on Field Four while number four seed Garden City will take on number five seed Dodge City on Field Two. Second-seeded Hutchinson will face number seven seed Seward County on Field Four at 2 PM while third-seeded Barton will face number six seed Colby on Field 2 with the winners of the 12 PM contest facing off at 4 PM on Field Four alongside an elimination game between the two opening game losers on Field Two. Finishing off the day will be a pair of 6 PM contests with the two winning teams from the 2 PM games facing off on Field Four while another elimination game featuring the two losers of the 2 PM contests playing on Field Two.

Action will continue on Saturday at 12 PM with another elimination game between the winner of game five and the loser of game eight with the contest kicking off a slate of four games taking place on the day all on Field Four. Championship Sunday will feature an elimination game between two of the three remaining teams with the winner taking on the lone unbeaten team left in the bracket with whichever team advances from the loser’s bracket needing to win to force a Monday winner-take-all contest at 12 PM.  

The winner of the 2025 NJCAA Division 1 Softball Plains District Tournament will earn an automatic berth into the 2025 NJCAA Division 1 Softball World Series, which will take place at the Pacific Avenue Athletic Complex in Yuma, Arizona. All games of the 2025 NJCAA Division 1 Softball Plains District Tournament will be streamed live on the KJCCC Sports Network at a cost of $10 per game, or a tournament pass for all games which will cost $25. Fans can also follow along to live statistics of all games of the tournament, with video and statistical links being found on the tournament home page: 2025 NJCAA Division 1 Softball Plains District Tournament.