West Burlington, IA—Playing as the Region XI Division I Softball Tournament spoiler, the Marshalltown Community College Softball team's monumental run in the postseason came to a close with a 5-1 loss to No. 2 seed Iowa Western Community College. The Tigers finished third in the 2016 tournament, just one year removed from a three-win season.
After knocking off No. 4 seed Southeastern Community College 5-1 on Friday, the Tigers upended No. 3 seed Muscatine Community College 14-4 in a shocking victory that caught the attention of the two remaining teams- top-seeded Indian Hills Community College and Iowa Western. Indian Hills dropped Iowa Western 10-2 in game two on Sunday to set the stage between the Tigers and the Reivers.
Less than a week removed from MCC's surprising 5-2 regular season victory at Iowa Western, the Tigers struck first with a run in the second inning against the Reivers as Lexie Valentine (Des Moines, IA/Saydel) grounded out to score Jordan Carter (Sigourney, IA/Sigourney) from third.
Iowa Western got on the board with a run in the bottom half of the second to even the game at one. The Reivers slowly built its lead over MCC, scoring a run in the third, two more in the fourth and added its final run in the fifth.
The Tigers threatened in each of the final two innings, putting two runners on the base paths but failed to produce a run as the Tigers' season came to a close.
MCC finishes the 2016 campaign with a 29-24 overall record. The 29 wins are the second-most in program history, eclipsing the 2008 team's total of 27 total wins. The 2014 team posted a program-best 33 wins.
Prior to Sunday's contests, three players- Sarah Ghee (Carlisle, IA/Carlisle), Kari Smith (Marshalltown, IA/Marshalltown), and Paige Taylor (Coquitlam, British Columbia/Terry Fox) were named to the All-Region XI Second-Team.
