BCC Softball Ready For District Tournament Today
By Space Coast Daily // May 3, 2013
Title Game In Pensacola On Sunday
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – The Brevard Community College softball team will find itself on familiar ground on Friday, May 3 as it returns to the NJCAA District G/Region 8A/Florida College System Activities Association Atlantic District Tournament for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons.
And, it will open against a familiar foe.
BCC plays its first tournament game at 4 p.m. EDT at Pensacola’s Exchange Park against Florida State College Jacksonville, a team it played five times during the regular season. BCC won two of the games.
FSCJ finished second in the FCSAA Mid-Florida Conference with a 16-8 record while BCC finished third in the Southern Conference with a 9-7 mark. FSCJ is 36-22 overall. BCC is 30-25.
But as far as BCC assistant coach Bob Yanczewski is concerned, the regular season records are irrelevant.
“Everybody’s 0-0 now,” Yanczewski said. “The only thing that matters is we’re there and we’re there to compete. It doesn’t matter who we play. We’ll be very competitive.”
Win or lose BCC plays a second game in the double elimination tournament on May 3, taking the field at 8 p.m. EDT either in the winner’s or loser’s bracket.
As for the possibility of being eliminated in one day, Yanczewski doesn’t see that as a factor.
“I really don’t believe they even think or even know that that’s a possibility until it happens,” he said. “We just take one game at a time and go from there. We don’t put any kind of pressure on them and tell them ‘if you lose two today you go home.’ We just tell them take one game at a time.”
BCC will be looking for its sophomores to set the tone, especially 2012 All-American Cassie Boggs. The centerfielder finished the regular season as the nation’s leader in hits with 99. She also ranked in the top 15 nationally in six other categories: second in doubles (25), second in at bats (205), eighth in total bases (143) and 12th in plate appearances (215). She was 14th in runs batted in (63) and 15th in batting average, .483.
Also, classmate and infielder Kat Ammons finished the regular season ranked fifth in runs batted in with 76 and 14th in hits with 81.
“I think we’ve got a very good core of sophomore leadership,” Yanczewski said. “They really know what it’s all about. It’s there for them to prove that they are one of the elite teams in the state, trying to win that state championship and going to the national tournament in Utah.
“The sophomores know what’s going on. They know what it takes to win. Hopefully that’s enough to rub off on the freshmen.”
Team wise, BCC produced at a prolific pace. The Titans completed the regular season ranked fourth nationally in hits with 580, 10th in runs batted in (354), 15th in runs (364), 16th in triples (14), 18th in doubles (89), 18th in batting average (361) and 19th in total bases (736).
Pitching wise, sophomore right-hander Shannen Marchu finished the regular season with a 15-10 record in 31 games — 22 of them complete — while freshman left-hander Brooke Formby was 10-6 in 22 games, 12 of them complete.
Formby’s role on the mound and coming off the bench with her bat will be vital as will contributions from classmates Manya Lopez, Bri Seaman and Devin Williams, Yanczewski said.
Other teams in BCC’s bracket aside from FSCJ are Southern Conference champion Miami Dade, Daytona State, Santa Fe State, Indian River State, College of Central Florida and Seminole State.
The 2013 FCSAA championship game will be played Sunday, May 5 between the Atlantic District and Gulf District champions. Both district winners advance to the NJCAA Division I Softball National Championship May 15-18 in St. George, Utah.
Days two and three of the Pensacola tournament will be webcast on Panhandle Sports Broadcasting at www.psblive.com
