Pima College softball team starts World Series refocused after end of streak

The Aztecs are glad it did.

Pima dropped two more that week, at Eastern Arizona, before launching its current seven-game win streak and taking the NJCAA Division I Region I title and a berth in the NJCAA Division I Softball World Series that begins Monday.

“I think we needed to lose,” Pima head coach Rebekah Quiroz said. “I think that streak needed to end to kinda remind us we needed to work hard and get back to a different goal, which wasn’t the streak.

“The streak wasn’t a goal. It was just an awesome accomplishment that they did. The goal was getting to nationals and that needed to happen for us to do that.”

The Aztecs (42-12) closed the season with doubleheader sweeps of Yavapai and Arizona Western (on the road) and then went 3-0 at the regional tournament, beating Western Arizona, Central Arizona and then host Eastern Arizona in the final in Thatcher.

“I think getting our win streak broken was probably the best thing that could have happened. I feel like it really humbled us a lot,” freshman pitcher Jazmyne Waddell said. “That, yes, there are teams in here that can beat us but we can beat them as well — like we did beat everybody once before.

“I feel like we really just had to buckle down and lock in for regionals.”

Pima goes to the 20-team, double-elimination national tournament in Oxford, Alabama, as the 14 seed. They open up Monday morning against No. 19 Abraham Baldwin (34-16) from Tifton, Georgia, with the winner then playing No. 3 seed Northwest Florida State (55-4).

“We’re going into nationals really well-balanced. Our pitching is ready to go. Our hitting started to get really hot during regionals, so I was very happy about that,” Quiroz said. “We have very good speed on the base path. So we have a really good chance of finishing high over there.”

It is Pima’s first nationals appearance since 2013, when the Aztecs finished third.

Pima came from behind to win all three games at Regionals. In the region championship, with the Aztecs trailing 3-0, freshman Alyssa Lopez hit a three-run homer for PCC.

“Oh, it felt amazing. I just knew that I had to get my team on the board and just make contact and hit and it just felt great,” said Lopez, who went to Sunnyside High School.

Sophomore infielder Camila Zepeda won ACCAC Player of the Year, the first Aztec to win conference POY since Jordan Trujillo in 2010. Zepeda, who went to Tucson High, also hit a home run in the title game, where she extended her hitting streak to 30 games.

Waddell was first team All-ACCAC. She went to San Manuel.

Quiroz, who played for Pima and won a national title as an Aztecs assistant coach, said the rugged ACCAC helped prepare them for the national tournament.

From the ACCAC alone, Central Arizona has won 12 national championships, while Yavapai and Arizona Western have two apiece.

“Any time we get to consistently play against Central Arizona, Eastern Arizona and Arizona Western and Yavapai, I think it’s gonna prepare us for any national stage,” Quiroz said. “So I’m very grateful for our competitors and I think any team leaving this region to go to nationals would be fully prepared.”

Waddell said the Aztecs are a great group to represent Region I (Arizona) on the national stage.

“It feels great,” Lopez added. “I love talking about my community. I love helping out in my community so it’s awesome.”

The red-hot Aztecs did cool off after the region tournament: They jumped in the pool at Eastern to celebrate the win.

“Well, I got thrown in the pool, and so I guess I deserved that after the strenuous practices and workouts I’ve put them through. I’m very proud of them,” Quiroz said. “It was such a good way to end such a tough regional, with some of the best teams in the country.

“It allowed us to cool off and be together as a team and they kind of just act like kids all over again so it was perfect for them.”

Extra bases

Before the Aztecs left for Alabama on Saturday, former Pima coach Stacy Iveson and former Aztecs Aubre (Carpenter) Cottrell and Jessica (Sipe) Hamm addressed the team.

Cottrell and Hamm were on Pima’s last World Series teams in 2012 and 2013.

Iveson won national championships at Pima and Yavapai and also coached for the University of Arizona.

The first two days of the tournament will be on the NJCAA Network, and then it moves to ESPN+. A tournament pass for the NJCAA Network is $15, but the ESPN+ games are not included.