Sun staff
Both UC Clermont College hardball teams will be playing for National Championships next week at the United State Collegiate Athletic Association National Tournament.
The baseball and softball programs have walked different paths over the past few years with the baseball program acting as a perennial title contender and the softball program having been in a postseason drought since 2005.
Next week, however, both teams are heading to their respective championships with the same goal in mind: to win.
“We won the National Championship in 2013; last year we were runner-up,” Clermont head baseball coach Keith Bauman said. “The upperclassman feel they let the program down last year by not bringing home a National Championship. This year, after some early struggles, the upperclassmen got together and were going to dedicate this season to win another National Championship.”
“It’s been exactly 10 years since we went (to the National Tournament) the last time,” Clermont head softball coach Dan Kinney said. “Hopefully, we’re going to be going for the next three or four years because I really think we’re going to have (a good team) in the coming years with the recruits I have coming in.”
Despite the different track records the two teams hold heading into the tournament, the questions that surrounded their inclusion by the USCAA selection committee weighed heavy on both squads.
“To earn a bid to this year’s National Championship, we had to overcome some big odds,” Bauman explained. “The upperclassmen were not going to let the program down and they put the team on their backs and battled the bigger schools.
“At the end of the season, we were a bubble team to make the (tournament). We thought our résumé was good enough to earn a bid, but we had to wait for the National Championship Selection Show.”
The softball team faced similar cancelations due to weather, but their inclusion in the National Tournament wasn’t so much a question of whether they were good enough, but whether they had played enough.
“It was a rough season. We played when we could, but most of our games were played on the road,” Kinney said. “We tried to keep (the momentum) going on the road as much as possible — we only played two home games this season. The girls stayed busy on their own. Some girls went to the cages and the pitchers worked on their own.
“We were worried that the number of games we played might hurt us and we may not get the bid on the account of we only played 15 games total. Otherwise, we were No. 1 in the standings, No. 1 in the power rankings, No. 1 in runs scored per game. We had a really good season, I just wish we could have played more.”
Now, with those worries in the rearview mirror, both Cougar squads are prepping to make long tournament runs, which will see them facing some of the best competition in the country.
Both tournaments are double elimination events that will take place next week. The women’s tournament runs from May 11-14 and the men’s runs from May 13-16.
The baseball team was awarded the No. 7 seed of 10. They will Penn State – Schuykill in the first round with the first pitch scheduled for 11 a.m on May 13.
If Clermont were to win, they will face PSU – Greater Allegheny in the second round.
The softball team was given the 10th and final seed and matched up against St. Joseph’s College – Brooklyn in the first round on May 11.
The last seed in, the Lady Cougars are looking to use the low seed as a source of motivation.
Full National Tournament coverage is available on theUSCAA.com and updates can be found on The Clermont Sun’s Twitter page, @ClerSunSports.