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April 23, 2024MARYVILLE, Mo.

Northwest carries momentum into final week of regular season

Northwest Missouri State can lock up the No. 5 seed in the MIAA Tournament this weekend.

Northwest Missouri State can lock up the No. 5 seed in the MIAA Tournament this weekend. (Photo courtesy Northwest Athletics)

 

Northwest Missouri State softball is on the brink of its first postseason appearance since 2021.

With four MIAA games remaining in the regular season, the magic number is down to three for the Bearcats to clinch the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament. It's a big jump for a Bearcat squad that finished 11th in the league one season ago.

"The pressure for us is to just stay where we're at mentally," head coach Naomi Tellez said. "We play so good when we're loose."

That style of play was on display over the weekend as Northwest senior Breck Dickey tossed a two-hit shutout to earn a split against the ninth ranked team in the NFCA Coaches Top 25, Pittsburg State, Friday afternoon. The Bearcats followed that up with a doubleheader sweep of Missouri Southern, a team their jockeying for position with in the upcoming MIAA tournament, on Saturday.

In total, Northwest pitching limited the Gorillas and Lions to a combined three earned runs across 28 innings.

In her third year guiding the program, Tellez believes she's seeing the team take shape not only competitively, but also the culture around the program as a whole.

"(The players) buy into everything that we've said for the past two years, and now that's finally paying off for us."

The Bearcats have won six of their last eight games, and find themselves just two wins away from clinching a winning record in the MIAA for the first time since 2018. Now they're ready to finish the job and offically punch their ticket to the conference tournament in Edmond, OK next week.

"I think that's huge for student-athletes," Tellez said. "We go and we compete since the beginning of February just to get a chance to experience the postseason."

Just six games remain in the regular season for the Bearcats – two non-conference games at home Wednesday against William Jewell, a road doubleheader Friday in Jefferson City against Lincoln, then a pair in Warrensburg against Central Missouri to round out the schedule Saturday.

"Just keeping the momentum and playing how we've been playing is really how we're going to go into the weekend."