The University of Northern Colorado Bears softball team clinched their first ever Big Sky Conference Title by defeating Idaho State in a best-of-three series. Through rain-delays, darkness-delays, and an 8-2 loss to Idaho State in game three of the tournament UNC persevered. Despite being picked to finish last in the preseason polls the Bears rallied all the way to a Big Sky Title and a trip to the Seattle Regionals of the NCAA Tournament.

To say the Bears softball team has struggled in recent memory is an understatement as this will be the teams first winning season since 2002. The Bears flirted with a winning season in 2018 when they received an berth in the National Invitational Softball Championship. Unfortunately, the Bears dropped both games to Loyola Marymount and Colorado State to end the season 28-28.

This season the Bears suffered a myriad of losses in the early season tournaments and out of conference play. Despite the uphill battle the Bears were able to go 6-1 heading into the conference tournament to give them a fighting chance as a three seed. While there are only six seeds in the conference being the three seed may have been the perfect storm for the Bears.

The Bears unleashed a ferocious offense in games one and two as they clobbered Montana 9-1 in six innings and out raced the Hornets after a darkness delay 12-10. The red hot bats may have tired out the ladies as Idaho State pounced on an opportunity to score twice as many points as their previous three games combined on the Bears.

Bears fans worried about the future of the playoffs all dependent on the one loss redemption game to earn a spot into the finals. No concerns came from the Bears as they had their best game of the season against Portland State with a demanding 5-0 shutout. A revenge date with Idaho State for the title had been booked against all odds.

The Bears were 1-3 on the season against the Bengals, but that never stopped the cardiac Bears from winning both games of the best-of-three title game in come from behind fashion. Even with rain delays in the second game the ladies were able to stay red hot and close out a program first ever title in Dedeann Pendleton-Helm’s first year as head coach.

The Bears finished the last 13 games of the season with an 11-2 record with one loss to the conference runner-ups and a new trophy for the display cases at Butler-Hancock Arena. UNC will look to continue its hot-streak as they travel to the Seattle regional where they face #5 Washington, Minnesota and McNeese State May 19-21st.

Additional accolades for the Bears include Erin Caviness set the UNC single game record for strikeouts with 16 against Stonehill College in February, UNC’s Lauren Strathearn, Alyssa Wenzel and Erin Caviness were named First Team All-Big Sky, and Sabrina Javorsky, Amailee Morales and Alexsi Barashkoff received Honorable Mention All-Big Sky.