FAYETTE, Mo. – From here on out, the UBC Thunderbirds (26-18, 16-11) are in uncharted waters. An incredible run in the Cascade Collegiate Conference playoffs that featured back-to-back wins over NAIA top-five ranked teams boosted their standing enough to earn an at-large bid for the 2025 NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round.
It's the first time that the T-Birds have ever made it to this stage, and they are one of the 48 teams still in the hunt for playoff glory. Now, it's time for a five-team double elimination tournament that runs from Monday, May 12th to Thursday, May 15th in Fayette, Missouri, the home of the Central Methodist Eagles (38-9, 21-3).
"It's an indescribable level of excitement," said Thunderbirds head coach Jennifer McKellar. "All of the coaches and alumni that have been here before us paved the way for us to be the team that gets to say we were the first one to make this round…we're so proud to be the first team that gets to go and be in the Opening Round and show off what UBC is capable of."
The T-Birds have leaned on some high-level pitching all year, led by Shae Sever and Carleen Murray who both earned spots on the CCC First Team All-Conference. They both ranked top-eight in the CCC in ERA and top-five in strikeouts this season.
Veteran arm Riley Woodward, meanwhile, showed her ability when she threw a pair of scoreless innings in relief in the walk-off win over Oregon Tech last Sunday, which put the T-Birds in the conference championship round. The pitching staff's stamina and depth could be tested once again, as after playing six games in about 55 hours last weekend, the Thunderbirds will play anywhere from two to five games in the same type of timeframe this coming week.
The players should be feeling confident, however, as they are playing their best ball of the season when it matters most. A big factor has been the consistency of the offence – after scoring four or more runs in just eight of their first 24 conference games, the T-Birds have now done so in 10 of their last 15 outings, including in four of their six CCC playoff games.
Sever and Keona Nordquist have been the two most consistent bats, with the former ranking second in the CCC in on-base percentage (.490), and the latter sitting in the top ten in hits (52) and breaking the UBC career program record in that category back in April.
There's also been some good depth play during this recent run of strong form, shown by the fact that in each of their first five playoff games a different T-Bird had a three-hit performance: first Jessica Heutink, then Nordquist, Jillian Matsubara, Kaitlyn Kim and Marin Jorgenson.
"We focus in on what we do well and the game that we play, and we believe in ourselves," said McKellar. "We plan for the clean route but we can pivot if we need to…I think we learned in the CCC tournament just how much we can give in pressure moments and when the game is on the line."
This coming week will be an even tougher test, as the T-Birds must emerge as victors in their five-team tournament if they are to keep their season going. They'll do so against a group of mostly unknowns – UBC has only ever played one of their four potential opponents before, that being the the top-seeded and No. 8 nationally-ranked LSU Alexandria Generals (46-7, 26-2).
The caveat there is that their most recent matchup came in 2014.
"All these teams come from great conferences with great records themselves, so we're going to focus first and foremost on what we do well and controlling our game," added McKellar. "Knowing a little bit about each team helps us tailor our offence and defence to be the best we can be, so we're using the little bit that we've got to help us zone in on how we can play our best game."
UBC's tournament opener comes against the hosts Central Methodist, who rank No. 11 in the NAIA themselves. The Eagles are looking for some redemption after they were dumped out of their conference tournament unexpectedly early, losing multiple games in a row for just the second time all season.
That's the two vs three-seed matchup, with the T-Birds holding the third seed. That's big, as it means they avoid the four vs five tournament opener and are guaranteed to only have to play one game on the first day of the tourney. Those two lower seeds, for their part, are the Campbellsville Lady Tigers (27-16, 10-8) and the Tennessee Southern Firehawks (30-19, 14-12).
The Thunderbirds' clash with the Eagles begins at 12:30 p.m. (PT) on Monday.
