NJCAA Day 3: Butler in driver’s seat; SLCC and Florida SW still alive

Written by Andy Griffin
May 20, 2017
Butler (KS) vs. Central Arizona, NJCAA National Championships, Softball, St. George, UT, May 19, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Friday was moving day for the NJCAA national tournament at the Canyons Complex in St. George, and no one in junior college softball moves quite like defending champion Butler (Kan.).

The No. 1 ranked Grizzlies won handily against quality competition Friday, beating fifth-ranked Central Arizona 9-0 and then handling No. 2 Salt Lake 9-3. The two wins put Butler in the Saturday noon championship game.

Salt Lake beat Lake Land (Ill.) 6-1 early in the day before the loss to Butler. The Bruins will battle Florida Southwestern State at 10 a.m. Saturday for the right to play in the championship. The winner of that game will have to beat the Grizzlies twice to become national champs.

Florida SW made its way through the one-loss bracket to earn that shot. FSWSC won three games Friday, 9-1 over San Jacinto-South (Texas), 6-1 over Central Arizona and 4-0 over Lake Land. Florida SW is 65-6 and ranked No. 3.

The Butler Grizzlies are 57-1 and are first in the nation in scoring and home runs. They hit six dingers on Friday in two victories.

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Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m. Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25.

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