Before the 2008 regular season starting pitcher Michelle Ruby made a bold prediction: 40 wins. She was wrong by a single game; they won 41.
Under head coach Leah Francis the BCC softball team has had a couple of 38-win seasons, once in 2006, finishing 38-9 and again the following year finishing 38-12.
After starting the season with a win and two losses it didn’t look great for a team that had only lost 12 games the previous year.
Then things changed.
The Lady Bulldogs claimed the North division championship for the third time in four seasons since Francis took the job in 2005.
They won an unprecedented 40 of their last 42 regular season games.
Their only losses came against first and second place teams. They fell to Lower Columbia (39-8 South) in the second game of the season, Wenatchee Valley (40-10 East) in the third, and twice against Olympic (27-12 North) 2-1 and 2-0 back on April 26.
Those losses snapped a 26-game win streak. Wenatchee Valley was the only other team in the league to win 40 or more games and BCC was the only team to win 30 plus games in league play with 34.
With two games to go in the season BCC had a 39-4 overall record.
On Saturday they traveled up to the UW Husky Softball Field in Seattle to take on regional rivals, Shoreline.
BCC was looking for a six game sweep of Shoreline in 2008 and that’s exactly what they got. In the first two games against Shoreline they won 9-1 and 15-5. The next time the teams met BCC handed them two more losses, 11-7 and a close fought battle 7-6.
On Saturday the girls weren’t exactly biting their nails. Dawn Norcoss hit a home run and Michelle Wilson who had been struggling at the plate went 4-4 in a 6-4 victory over Shoreline.
Allison Sanford hit a home run in a 10-3, 19-hit performance by BCC to complete the sweep and the 41-win season.
The NWAACC championships will be held in Delta Park, Ore. where BCC will enter as a number one seed in hopes of winning its first ever NWAACC championship.