That Championship Season - A Look Back At Spartan Softball In 2008
6/10/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Spartanburg, S.C. - Leading 6-4 heading to the top of the seventh inning against Mercer in the second game of the A-Sun doubleheader on Apr. 27, the USC Upstate bats exploded for four runs to put the game out of reach as the Spartans claimed a 10-4 win and a series sweep of the Bears to end the 2008 season. Little did the team know what would unfold just two days later - claiming a share of the A-Sun regular season championship in the program's first year in NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Florida Gulf Coast, which was also competing in its first season as a member of NCAA Division I and the A-Sun, had seemingly cruised through the majority of the season at the top of the standings. The Eagles had received votes in various top 25 polls and, despite its infancy in Division I, gained a measure of respect in college softball. Then came the fateful day in Spartanburg on April 12 when the front-running Eagles, who entered the doubleheader with just one conference loss in 14 games, took to the field at Cyrill Stadium to face Upstate. The Spartans had just swept Stetson the day before and, on Senior Day, gutted out a pair of victories over Florida Gulf Coast to deal the Eagles a blow from which they would not recover. It also sent a message to the rest of the league and the college softball world that Upstate was for real.
Upstate finished the A-Sun slate winning 11 of its final 12 games to finish with a 16-6 conference record. The only loss during the final 12 conference games came at Lipscomb in the second game of the doubleheader. The split with the Bisons was key following Florida Gulf Coast's losses at Stetson because it resulted a three-way tie for the conference championship between Upstate, Florida Gulf Coast and Lipscomb. The 16 wins by the Spartans equaled the single-season school record for conference wins in a season, matching the 16 wins a year ago in the Peach Belt Conference in Division II.
Early Struggles
Upstate's strong finish to the season trumped and overshadowed the early struggles the Spartans had at winning the second game of their doubleheaders in the early part of the season.
While the Spartans looked strong down the stretch, things didn't start out well in conference play. Yes, Upstate won the first game of each of its first five league doubleheaders. However, the Spartans dropped the second game in all five double dips, claiming a 5-5 league record through the first 10 games.
Things weren't that much better during non-conference games as the Spartans would play solid during the first game of a doubleheader, typically taking the win, before dropping the second game. You could almost sense a scent of desperation in the air following heartbreaking second game losses at UNC Wilmington and Coastal Carolina. However, things came together when the team made the six-plus hour trip to Jacksonville, Fla., the first weekend of April.
The Turnaround
Upstate made the trek down to Jacksonville to face the Jacksonville Dolphins and North Florida Ospreys in back-to-back doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday, April 4-5. The Spartans had just split their first five conference doubleheaders and had just been swept at home by Charlotte, the only time the Spartans were swept in a doubleheader all year long. To make matters worse, poor directions and a wrong turn caused the team to arrive for the Jacksonville games just 45 minutes prior to the first pitch. You could cut the tension with a knife as the bus wound through Jacksonville on the way to JU's campus. But once the bus arrived, the Spartans made it a point to put all of the distractions behind them and hit the ground running.
Upstate swept the doubleheader with Jacksonville, its first A-Sun sweep ever, behind the strong pitching of Morgan Childers and Brittany Rice. While the excitement of getting their first conference sweep spread like wildfire through the team, Upstate knew it didn't have long to celebrate its accomplishment with a doubleheader at North Florida looming in less than 12 hours. North Florida and Upstate have a history with each other. The two schools were members of the Peach Belt Conference prior to North Florida's move to the A-Sun and Division I following the 2005 season. North Florida had routinely gotten the better of Upstate in the early days of the rivalry, but starting in 2004, Upstate turned the tide. The Spartans beat the Ospreys in the 2004 Peach Belt Tournament and eliminated them from the NCAA Tournament later that spring. The Spartans also defeated UNF in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. But, North Florida had two years of experience in Division I on its side and Upstate always seemed to struggle against the Ospreys in Jacksonville.
With the doubleheader moved up to beat the stormy weather that would hit just 20 minutes following the completion of the second game, Morgan Childers pitched another strong game to deliver a 4-0 shutout in game one and Rice and Childers combined to take a 6-2 win in game two, completing the sweep.
The sweep marked the first time all season long that the Spartans swept back-to-back doubleheaders. It also stirred something inside the team. For the first time all year, the Spartans believed they could win every game they played. For the next month, Upstate would take to the field with a confidence and swagger of a winner.
"We finally got over the hump by winning both games against Jacksonville," said Upstate head coach Chris Hawkins. "I really think what happened was that Brittany (Rice) started zeroing in with her starts and gained confidence in herself and her teammates. And, we actually started hitting the ball when she was out there. Everything clicked in that second game at Jacksonville and, from that point on, everyone had confidence in each other. When we won the second game, the players realized that is was not this big thing that was that hard to accomplish. They realized they just needed to go out there and play hard, play the way they knew how to play and things would take care of themselves."
Sweeping Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast
Lauren Quevedo. Enough said.
 Lauren Quevedo belted three home runs, including two grand slams, in the sweeps of Stetson and FGCU.  |
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Courtney Feldon started things off with a two-run home run to give Upstate a 2-1 lead. After Stetson tied the game at 2-2 in the sixth inning, Quevedo took her cue. After Kim Brasil and Heidi Gibbs both reached to lead off the inning, Stetson chose to walk the dangerous Feldon to face Quevedo. Quevedo cranked the second pitch she saw over the wall in right center to give Upstate a 6-2 lead and, eventually, the win in game one.
Behind strong pitching from Rice in game two and timely hits by Feldon and Quevedo again, Upstate claimed a 5-1 win in game two to take the sweep.
Next up was Florida Gulf Coast. Gulf Coast had just put up football-like numbers in sweeping Gardner-Webb the day before and headed to the showdown with Upstate with just one conference loss in 14 games. When Cheyenne Jenks smacked a two-run homer in the first inning of game one, it looked shaky on Senior Day for the Spartans. Armed with a new confidence, the Spartans did not falter and took a 3-2 lead thanks to Gibbs scoring on a wild pitch and later driving in a pair of runs. Feldon cranked a solo homer to add to the lead as the Spartans went on for the 6-4 win in game one.
In game two, Feldon went deep again with a solo shot to give Upstate a 1-0 lead in the fourth. FGCU responded with a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead. Upstate tied the game in the fifth inning on Shay Slater's sacrifice fly. With Upstate rallying and two runners on, FGCU elected to walk Feldon to load the bases. Feldon had hurt the Eagles all day long, but just like the day before against Stetson, the intentional walk loaded the bases and brought up Quevedo. Deja-vu and Quevedo delivered. The freshman belted a grand slam in nearly the same spot as her four-bagger against Stetson to give Upstate a commanding 6-2 lead as Upstate completed the sweep with a 7-3 victory.
The sweeps at Jacksonville and North Florida turned the season around. The sweeps of Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast set the Spartans up for the rest of the season and, eventually, a conference championship.
"When you can beat four teams from the state of Florida, that says a lot for us as a team," said Hawkins. "Clearly, had we not swept Florida Gulf Coast, we would not have won the conference championship. So, getting those two games were huge in the big picture."
Finishing Strong Down The Stretch
Carrying a 10-game winning streak into the doubleheader at Lipscomb, Upstate had catapulted itself into third place in the A-Sun and, for the first time, into the national scene by bolting up the NCAA RPI rankings at No. 57 out of 282 programs. The Upstate bats rallied behind Childers in game one, sending the game into extra innings with a three-run homer by Lauren Quevedo in the seventh and winning in the eighth. Despite taking the loss in the second game, the Spartans remained confident.
A pair of non-conference splits at Furman and Presbyterian did nothing to damper the enthusiasm of the Spartans traveling to Mercer to end the season on April 27. There was something special about the team's attitude getting ready for Mercer, especially given the fact that Upstate could not participate in the conference tournament and would not be eligible for an NCAA Tournament berth during the program's provisional years in NCAA Division I. Postseason had been a common word at Upstate. The Spartans had made four straight trips to the NCAA Division II Tournament, advancing to the championship game of the Southeast Regional in 2005 before falling to eventual national runner-up and fellow A-Sun foe Kennesaw State. But this season was different. The players and coaches could pencil in their final game. Mercer was it. Final. Complete.
Coming To An End
Three seniors made the final bus trip to Mercer on Apr. 27. Shay Slater, Tiffany Pitcher and Vanesa Flores knew they had just two more games left in their careers and all three wanted to go out winners. Slater was a star since the day she stepped onto the field for conditioning and practice in the fall of 2004. She finished her career with six career school records. She hit .353 as a freshman in helping lead the Spartans to the magical run in the NCAA Regionals in 2005. She followed her freshman season hitting .333 as a sophomore. As a junior, she was an All-America, all-region and all-conference selection after hitting a PBC leading .454 with a conference and school record 70 runs. She finished her career hitting .331 as a senior.
Pitcher joined Slater in the starting lineup as a freshman, splitting time at catcher and designated player. She hit .343 as a freshman en route to being named all-region. She took over the reigns as the everyday starter at catcher as a sophomore and held onto the spot for the remainder of her career. Pitcher started the 2008 season slowly, recording just one hit through her first 24 at bats in 12 games. But when she took the field at North Carolina's tournament in early March, she broke out of her slump. She hit .347 the rest of the season and finished with a .286 average and the school's all-time sacrifice bunts and fielding percentage records.
Flores transferred to Upstate prior to her junior season and made an immediate impact in 2007. She was the Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year after leading the league with 19 home runs and 66 RBIs. She also garnered All-America, all-region and all-conference honors. By the time she finished her senior season with the Spartans, she stood third all-time with 25 home runs, having belted six more in 2008.
The three seniors joined the 15 other Spartans on the field for warm-ups at Mercer with the determination to go out on top. When the game started, all three played key roles in the doubleheader sweep of the Bears with all three getting a hit in their last at bats of their career.
Childers was strong on the mound again for the Spartans, allowing just one earned run in nine innings of work as Upstate gutted out a 4-3 win in extra innings in game one. Freshman Kim Brasil drove in the game winner in the ninth. Game two saw Rice and Childers combine to take a 10-4 win over Mercer to give the Spartans 16 wins and assure Upstate of at least a share of second place in the conference standings, a pretty solid result for year one in the A-Sun.
The Upstate players were happy on the bus. Tears that flowed immediately following the sweep gave way to laughter, singing and joking on the trip home. So did the talk of what seemed improbable, a Stetson sweep of Florida Gulf Coast two days later. The general thought was that while Stetson was a very good team, Florida Gulf Coast was so good that a sweep was remote.
The Wait Is Over
Having done everything it needed to do to put itself into a position to win a share of the regular season A-Sun championship, Upstate had to sit and wait to see what would happen in the doubleheader between Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast. If FGCU were to win one game on April 29, the Eagles would win the regular season championship outright. A Stetson sweep would give Upstate, Lipscomb and FGCU a three-way tie for the title.
With the majority of the team crammed into junior outfielder and run specialist Melissa Lockey's apartment to watch the Stetson-FGCU doubleheader on ASun.TV, the team screamed and cheered as Stetson took game one. When FGCU scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 3-0 lead, the apartment got quite. While no one believed it was over, the air had started leaking from the proverbial balloon. However, Stetson rallied for three runs on Andrea Migliori's three-run homer to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth and the Spartans were back in the title hunt.
Stetson came to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning with a tremendously loyal following in Spartanburg rooting them on. The Hatters delivered with a run and a 4-3 win that helped secure a conference championship for Upstate.
"We've been shouting for the last hour," said Slater after the Stetson sweep of FGCU. "I think it is awesome. It is exciting that we could come into Division I and win the conference championship in our first year. I am just so happy. We had most all of the team at Mel's apartment watching the game."
"Oh my gosh, this is the best way to end our senior year," commented Pitcher following the Stetson sweep. "We are ending on such a sweet note. Coming in being picked to finish ninth and winning a conference championship is awesome and it helps make up for not being able to go to the NCAA Tournament."
Upstate certainly played itself into contention with a strong second half of the conference season. No one was hotter or better than the Spartans at the end of the season. Upstate and Florida Gulf Coast could not participate in the conference tournament, giving the No. 1 seed to Lipscomb. However, had both teams been eligible, Upstate, by virtue of its 3-1 record against FGCU and Lipscomb, would have been the number one seed in the A-Sun Tournament. Quite a feat for a team picked to finish ninth in the standings in the preseason coaches poll released by the league in January.
"In the 13 years that I have been coach here (Upstate) we never won a Peach Belt Conference championship, and in our first year in Division I and the Atlantic Sun Conference we won a share of the championship," said Hawkins. "It was not something I planned or expected in our first year, but I am extremely proud of what our team has accomplished."
The Good Times Keep On Rolling
But while Upstate had the thrill of winning a conference championship - the team joined the women's tennis team and Emily Tangwar as conference champions in 2007-08 - it was not over as several Spartans earned individual recognitions for their excellence.
 Morgan Childers broke six single-season or single-game school records and was the A-Sun Pitcher and Freshman of the Year in 2008. |
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Childers was joined on the A-Sun All-Conference team by Heidi Gibbs and Lauren Quevedo. Gibbs earned all-conference honors after hitting .357 as the Spartans' starting right fielder. Her selection marked her third all-conference honor after being named all-conference in each of her first two seasons playing in the Peach Belt Conference. Quevedo earned all-conference honors after hitting .316 overall and an astounding .403 in league play. She was simply dominant at the plate during A-Sun games, belting key grand slams in the wins over Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast, the game-tying homer at Lipscomb in the first game win, and delivering timely hits throughout the A-Sun slate of games.
In addition to all-conference honors, Childers and Quevedo were joined on the A-Sun All-Freshman team by Brasil and Courtney Feldon.
Hawkins, who wrapped up his 14th season at the helm of the Upstate program, won his 488th career game and is on the cusp of reaching the 500-win mark. Hawkins is the winningest coach in the history of the program and is a member of the Upstate Athletics Hall of Fame for his exploits as a baseball player from 1986-87.
That championship season - one for the books.
