Ten days ago the JSU Gamecock softball season came to an end at the NCAA Regionals in Atlanta. The Gamecocks lost two straight, a tough, hard-played 5-3 loss to No. 8 ranked Georgia Tech and then a 15-1 loss the next day to Auburn.

While the losses brought the Gamecock season to an end, it was still a season that the softball team can look back on with pride, especially the second half of the season.

“I told the girls that in athletics it’s all about how you finish,” said head coach Jana McGinnis. “How you are remembered is how you finish.”

The team must have taken those words to heart. After finishing last year with a Regional championship and their first ever trip to the Super Regionals, the Gamecocks were expected to do very well once again this season. It didn’t appear mid-way through the schedule however that the Gamecocks were going to fulfill those expectations.

Starting out 17-14 Coach McGinnis knew that she had to get her team’s attention. “We had a deciding week of practice,” said McGinnis.

“It was geared towards breaking them down and they were going to come together to build themselves up to be champions or they were going to break down and call it a season.

“We challenged them for three days straight. After the first day that we thought they would break they really showed us some good signs.

“We didn’t tell them but as a coaching staff when we got back to the office we all looked at each other and said, “They’ve got something! This is not a lost season, it can be turned around.”

McGinnis knew that the season would be tough with 11 newcomers but had hoped that things would come together after about 20 games. It took longer. “We were running out of patience with them,” admits McGinnis.

McGinnis had her team erase their batting averages after that week of practice, all except Hillary Downs who was batting .370. “We wanted her to leave that up there,” laughed McGinnis.

“We worked and the girls had a new start at Morehead.”

That new start consisted of winning 19 of the last 24 games to include a seven game streak and a sweep of the OVC tournament to win JSU their second OVC tournament championship in three years and their third straight NCAA post-season tournament appearance.

While the Gamecocks hated to see their season end with two straight losses at the Regional Tournament, they can be proud of the efforts they made to turn their season around and win the OVC tournament and once again represent their school at a Regional tournament.