Looking Back At An Outstanding Season
May 29, 2007 | Softball
The 2007 Gardner-Webb softball team nearly pulled off the improbable, the unthinkable and the unimaginable to outsiders, advancing to the Atlantic Sun Conference championship game before dropping a heartbreaker in a game that would have given the team its first-ever NCAA appearance.
Having gone so far in a tournament that the Bulldogs were not even predicted to make before the outset of the 2007 journey, GWU's staff and student-athletes proved the doubters wrong time and again, earning a 35-26-1 overall mark and a 10-7-1 campaign in conference competition. The record was a 23.5 game improvement from the 2006 season, which stands as the eighth-best turnaround in NCAA history.
A great deal of the sudden change was due to improving health concerns from a season ago. In addition to the limited number of injuries, head coach Tom Cole and his staff had student-athletes that stepped up like never before, had solid play out of others and had a wealth of newcomers quickly elevate their games to the collegiate level.
The young and the old worked together rather well, and each ended up ranking among the nation's best. Abbie Looper, playing in her last collegiate season, would stand 14th nationally in triples per game. Rookie Melody Harrell, who missed the first 15 games due to an injury, finished the season 10th in the NCAA statistics for RBI per contest.
Having pawed their way through a difficult A-Sun conference with a winning record, the Bulldogs received the No. 2 spot at the conference tournament, but had to face a Campbell team that had shut down the Bulldogs' potent offense in a two-game sweep two weeks prior. GWU would not let it happen again and jumped out to an early lead en route to an 8-0 shellacking of the Camels. The game not only allowed the Bulldogs to stay in the winner's bracket, but it also marked the first time the program had ever won a postseason game since moving to Division I.
In the second round, GWU faced an ETSU team it had beaten handily earlier in the year, but found itself trailing midway through the game. However, the Bulldogs would battle back for a 7-4 victory with sophomore Angie Walls, who returned to the circle for the first time since high school during the season, earned her first collegiate save.
Playing in the semifinals against top-seeded Stetson, pitcher turned designated hitter Haley Scism got Cole's team on the board in the early going with a solo homerun. Junior Joanna Ward, who earlier in the week had been named Academic All-District by ESPN The Magazine, scored the game-winning run, sending GWU to its first-ever championship game.
Although the Bulldogs fell to the Hatters in the championship, four garnered all-tournament team honors, including Harrell, Taryn Beck, Lindsey Whitfield and Jessi Williams. Before the tournament began, Harrell and fellow first-year player Emily Sherrill were named to the A-Sun All-Freshman team while Whitfield and Sherrill earned second-team all-conference honors.
Throughout the season, GWU played multiple games against some of the nations' best in order to prepare for the A-Sun Championship, including contests against No. 22 NC State and No. 25 North Carolina. Just before the conference slate began, the squad reeled off seven straight victories – its most in a row in recent memory.
The team established multiple records and top-five finishes, re-writing the school's record book. GWU finished with the second-most wins in the program's history (35), but had season bests in other key categories including hits (494), batting average (.295), runs scored (285), home runs (52), extra base hits (136), total bases (749), RBIs (256), walks (146), fielding percentage (.964) and double plays turned (20). The squad was second in a season in doubles (69), triples (15), stolen bases (86), and fewest errors (63).
Individually, Sherrill and Ward established a new single-season record for home runs with 12 apiece. Sherrill's 104 total bases set a new benchmark as did her 27 walks. In the circle, Beck tied the school record for wins with 18 and fewest walks per seven innings at 1.26. Her nine shutouts also garnered a school record.
The Bulldogs will reload after losing two players – Looper
and Ward – to graduation. Despite playing just three seasons
and leaving as the school's career home run leader, Ward has opted
to graduate early. However, with an abundance of talent returning
and a Top 100 prospect coming in, Cole's team will attempt to
complete the task it began this year, culminating in its first-ever
appearance in the NCAA Tournament next season, which happens to be
its last in the A-Sun Conference. Although many chapters have been
written in the Bulldogs' history, including several new ones in
2007, the 2008 team has a chance to script a perfect ending to its
journey.
