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South Salt Lake Journal

Cottonwood softball suffers déjà vu at state under new coach

Jul 08, 2019 02:58PM ● By Justin Adams

Carlie Roberts helped pitch the Colts into the playoffs, but their season ended with a 12-10 record. (Travis Barton/City Journals)

By Brian Shaw | [email protected]

For the Cottonwood Colts softball team, they probably wished history didn't repeat itself. 

But, like the 2018 season in which the Colts just couldn't get over the hump at the Class 5A state softball tournament, they again found themselves in a similar predicament on May 28. 

Two weeks after opening the state tournament with a punishing 6-1 loss at Roy on May 14, and winning their do-or-die game against Olympus by a razor-thin 8-7 scoreline, the Colts finally ended their season with a heartbreaking 9-8 loss to East on May 28, but only after torrential rains cancelled several attempts at playing the game. 

East got on the board first with two runs in the opening inning. Cottonwood would answer with three runs in the second and third innings. 

But, the Leopards would strike with six runs in the next two innings —four in the fourth alone —to take a commanding lead over the Colts. Cottonwood battled back with a three-run fifth inning, tying the game at 8-8. 

But, a sacrifice fly by East in the bottom of the seventh would be all it would need to squeak by Cottonwood and end the Colts season at 12-10 overall. 

For Cottonwood, it was a good season. The Colts finished third in their region at 6-4. But under new head coach Jen Riches — who took over for Alissa Smith in the offseason — Cottonwood was a team with veteran leadership that wanted more. 

To have two one-run games to end the season — one in their favor, one not so much —was probably pretty disappointing. That said, it was still a winning season for the Colts in 2019.