Historic Season Ends in Big Sky Title Game

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2  
POCATELLO, Idaho-  The 2014 season was another history making season for the Idaho State softball team. The team won a school record 35 games and the Big Sky Conference regular season championship for the second straight year. All season long the team was also ranked in the Top 10 in several NCAA statistics.

While the Bengals goal of winning the conference tournament and advancing to an NCAA regional fell short on Saturday against Southern Utah, coach Julie Wright couldn't be more proud of her team. Idaho State beat SUU 7-2 early in the day to force a deciding game for the championship but the T-Birds won game two 8-5 to earn the automatic berth to the NCAA tournament

"I told them I was proud of them," Wright said after the game. "I knew they left it out on the field and they did everything they could. That made it ok."

The game was tied at five going into the seventh inning but Southern Utah scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to earn the victory.

"They beat us," Wright said. "I thought we played a great game and they played a great game. I have a lot of respect for that team. I like that team a lot actually. We just got beat."

Idaho State had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning but the T-Birds got out of the inning.

"We battled and we did what we always do which is fight until there were no more chances," Wright said.

As Wright looks back on what made the 2014 team so successful it came down to two words: team chemistry.

"One thing that no one ever really talked about with this team was that they had fantastic team chemistry," she said. "That x factor was definitely here. Honestly, in 18 years of coaching I have never been around a team that has better team chemistry then this one."

 Haley Douglas pitched the Bengals to the game one win by holding SUU to three hits while striking out three.  She went the distance to improve her record to 19-10. She also pitched the first four innings of game two.

"She was brilliant," Wright said. "To go on 12 hours rest, she put it all out there. They all did. I was proud of all of them."

Douglas, Terah Blackwell, Hailey Breakwell, Maddy Hickman and Kacie Burnett all were named to the all-tournament team.
 
2014 Big Sky All-Tournament Team
MVP – Kadi Henderson, Southern Utah
Kylee Wolf, Southern Utah
Lyndsey Healey, Southern Utah
Katie Greenberg, Southern Utah
Sara Park, Southern Utah
Ariel Hart, Southern Utah
Madison Resley, Southern Utah
Haley Douglas, Idaho State
Terah Blackwell, Idaho State
Hailey Breakwell, Idaho State
Maddy Hickman, Idaho State
Kacie Burnett, Idaho State
Caitlin Brooks, Sacramento State
Paige Martin, Sacramento State
Paige Castro, Sacramento State
Kaitlin Flynn, Northern Colorado