MNU
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Softball goes to national tourney Team goes 46-8, claims both HAAC titles
T
he seeds for the MidAmerica softball team’s epic season were planted little more than a year ago.
Last spring, the Pioneers climbed to 29-23, and hopes were high for the 2010 season.
Yet no one really expected this.
The Pioneers rewrote the record books in 2010, winning their first- ever regular season and post-sea-
son Heart of America Athletic Conference titles, and advanc- ing to the NAIA national tournament for the first time.
The Pioneers
finished the season at 46-8 overall and 17-3 in the HAAC, both school records.
The 2010 season took
Senior Jen Costa of Overland Park, Kan., strides into a pitch
off in late March. After losing the first game of a doubleheader at home against Evangel, the Pioneers won the second game in historic fashion with senior Penny East- man throwing 263 pitches in a 17-inning complete- game victory. The feat set a new NAIA single-game strikeout record of 22, al- lowing just five hits.
Junior Taylor Ryal of Dewar, Okla., hits for the Pioneers
That win proved to be the turning point. Following the split, the Pioneers reeled off 20-straight wins in the regular season.
The Pioneers lost their first two games at the national tournament, but were able to win their final game of the year, coming back from a 4-0 deficit to beat Ottawa 6-4 and finishing third in pool play. Because only the top team advances out of pool play, the Pioneers’ memorable season was over.
Following the season, first baseman Taylor Ryal was named a second-team NAIA All-American. She finished the season hitting .409 and an .812 slugging percentage. She had15 home runs, 54 RBIs and 17 doubles.
Along the monumental journey, head coach Steve Babinski
became the most successful head softball coach in MNU history in mid-March. The Pioneers gave him his 153rd win, surpassing the previous record of Coach Krystal Kennard. After the epic 2010 season, Babinski had 181 career wins.
Baseball team gets it going in renovated stadium
Everything seemed to change on April 6 for the MNU baseball team.
Across the diamond was long-time nemesis Evangel and the Pioneers were in desperate need of a shot in the arm.
They got what they needed in the first game, winning 6-0. Then came the catalyst for a late-season push that saw them finish with their best Heart of America Athletic Conference record in a decade, when a walk-off home run gave them a 6-5 victory.
“When we got that sweep, I knew it would be a turning point,” said head coach Ryan Thompson.
The Pioneers finished the season 22-24 and 15-13 in the
HAAC. A four-game losing streak at the end of the season kept them from finishing with a .500 record overall, but they finished over .500 at home at the newly upgraded Robbie Jones Field at Dixon Stadium.
18 | Accent magazine | Summer 2010 “I really felt good about
how the guys played this year,” Thompson said.
The Pioneers finished the
season in fourth place in the HAAC and the three teams above them all tied for first. For those with a glass-is- half-full outlook on life, that’s a second place finish.
“It was a new field and
the beginning of a new era,” Thompson says. “We really wanted to have a winning record at home and we were able to do that.”
Senior Harrison Helms, a pitcher from Matthews, N.C., throws for MNU.
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