Crowder College’s softball team begins its quest for its first national championship since 1986 as a No. 17-seed when it faces the No. 16 McCook (Nebraska) Community College Indians at 1 p.m. Monday in the 2025 NJCAA Division I Softball World Series in Yuma, Arizona.
The Region 16 champion Roughriders (49-9) earned a spot in the 20-team double-elimination national tournament by winning their best-of-three series against Region 11 champion Iowa Western Community College last weekend at the Midwest District Championships at Crowder.
The Indians (48-9) earned their place in the tourney by sweeping Western Nebraska Community College 2-1 in extra innings and 9-1 in their Region IX tourney.
Crowder is coming into the tournament with its fifth straight season of 40-plus wins. The Roughriders have won 21 of their last 22 games, falling only to Iowa Western 0-4 in the first game of the Midwest District championship.
Crowder is led in the circle by Jessica Smith, who has tallied the second most strikeouts (282) by any pitcher in the nation in NJCAA DI. She has the sixth-most wins (24) in the division and sports a 1.44 ERA this year.
The Roughriders have been aggressive on the base paths this season under first-year coach Niki Keck. As a team, the Roughridders rank third in NJCAA DI as a team with 213 stolen bases. Crowder’s Miya Curry has the second-most stolen bases in NJCAA D1 this year with 78.
Crowder will be facing a McCook team that also loves to run. The Indians have logged the fourth-most stolen bases in the nation in NJCAA DI softball with 210 as a team. Laila Gutierrez is third in the nation behind Curry with 74 stolen bases and has scored the fourth-most runs (87).
Pitcher Paige Warren leads the Indians both in the circle and at the plate. Warren is 9-1 as a pitcher and is hitting .434 with 55 RBIs. She has the fifth-most doubles in the NJCAA DI with 24.
The Indians also bring pop to the plate with Payton Kinsley, who is tied for the sixth-most home runs this year in DI with 21.
Crowder also brings the threat of a long ball with Jasmine Myers, who is tied for 10th in DI with 20 home runs. Myers also is ninth in RBIs with 88.
As a team, McCook is hitting .387, the Roughriders are hitting at a .351 clip this season.
The winner of the Crowder/McCook game will face a daunting task as they will play the No. 1 overall seed — the Florida Southwestern State College Buccaneers (52-5) — at 1 p.m. Tuesday. The Buccaneers five losses this season are by a total of six runs and all were to ranked teams.
The Roughriders have played two teams in this year’s championship field — No. 9-seed Butler Community College (44-7) from Eldorado, Kansas, and No. 18-seed Rose State College Raiders (38-19) out of Midwest City, Oklahoma. The Roughriders split their season series with Rose State 5-6, 7-5 in early March at Midwest City, Oklahoma; Crowder beat Butler 10-4, but fell 0-13 in their doubleheader March 17 in Neosho.
The 2025 NJCAA Division I Softball World Series first round, second round and the elimination first round will be streamed live on the NJCAA Network. Later rounds will stream on ESPN+.