The postseason offers a new beginning and the Des Moines Area Community College softball team took advantage of that over the weekend. After dropping four regular season games to Kirkwood the Bears beat the Eagles twice to win the Region 11 title and move a step closer to a trip to the National Championships.
“It’s a coach’s dream to have their team playing their best when it’s at the end of the season, clutch time,” DMACC coach Bob Ligouri says. “Our team really put it together. It’s a great story — we won out last 14 in a row — finished 40-10 and played, really, really good softball.”
Ligouri says the team seemed to learn how to calm down and have fun, as he says once that happened, the group came together. Ligouri says the team developed good chemistry and gives part of the credit to the amount of time they have spent on buses as they played 24 of the last 26 games on the road. “On those long bus rides, our team came together,” he says.
DMACC travels to Columbus, Nebraska, this week for a three team district tournament. The other teams in the field are Williston State of North Dakota ands Central of Nebraska. Ligouri feels the competition his team plays during the season gives them added confidence. He says Kirkwood, Iowa Central and Marshalltown all have good community college programs and that helps toughen the team up.
The district tournament begins on Wednesday.