1996 Miracle Yearbook

NoeIla Fisher carries the ball in after closing the inning by catching a fly ball. The Cedarville College women's softball team enjoyed a successful season under first-year coach Joy Fagan. The Lady Jackets finished secondin the Mid-OhioConference and made their first-ever appear- ance at the NCCAA National Tour- nament. Cedarville was 19-20-1 overall and ended up second in the tough MOC standings at 10-5-1. The womenwererunners-upinthecon- ference tournament behind peren- nialpowerShawneeState,whoeven- tually was the NAIA National Run- ner-up. A challenging non-conference scheduleawaited theLadyJacketsas well. Their southern tour during spring break induded four games againstNAIA nationally-ranked op- ponents. They even upset No. 5 Southern California College,6-5. It wastypicalfor Cedarville to winthe close ones as they were an impres- sive 10-5 in one-run games. Juniorthird basemanErika Miller wasvotedtotheAll-MOCfirstteam. She tied for the team lead in hitting with a.376 average, was tops with 38 runs batted in,and led the MOC with 16 doubles. SeniorshortstopCindyCremeans was tabbed to the All-MOC second team after also batting.376. Sheled the club in bats (141), hits (53), and assistsinthefield(124).Shehit .367 during her two-year career at Cedarville and struck outonly three times in 298 plate appearances. Senior catcher Penni Ruhl was also named to the All-MOC second team. Shehit.333 withateam-high 36 runs scored. She started every game behind the plate and threw out 23 baserunners attempting to steal. Junior first baseman Jennifer Cassidy batted .305 and was voted to the NCCAA District III All-Tour- namentTeamalong withCremeans. Cassidy also joined Penni Ruhl and Melissa Sprankle as All-MOC Scholar-Athletes. FreshmanLaraGyurikandBrandi Knight handled all of the pitching duties. Gyurik, who was All-MOC honorable mention,was9-8on the mound with a 3.44 earned run av- erage. She also batted .323 at the plate with 31 runs scored. Knight had a 10-12 pitching record with a 4.55 ERA. Mark Womack,Sports Information Director Softball Penni pulls off her mask and watches as the ball goes deep into left. softball