In a sporting event, the pressure of a situation can render it difficult for a team to find an individual who can come up large in any given situation, not due to the lack of talent or the lack of guts of the said individual in question, but just the simple weight that the moment carries.

However, if there's one thing that a person can pick up on the Shawnee State softball program, the Bears don't just have one individual who believes that they can come through the fire.

They have an entire team of individuals who believe that they can not only weather the storm, but push through it -- and thrive within.

And that, truly, can put a lump in any team's throat.

In the latest version of Who Wants To Be A Hero, the Shawnee State softball program had two willing participants on this one very special Friday in South Charleston, W. Va.

Locked in a scoreless 0-0 mark with Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in the bottom of the seventh inning, an error and a single by Jenna Christopher allowed Cassie Berry to bring in Brittani Wolfenbarker for the game-winning run for the second time in six days with her RBI base knock to left center, sending Shawnee State onto a 4 p.m. contest against Midway later Friday afternoon.

Then, following a 3-0 lead by SSU that was evaporated by Midway, it was Christopher's turn to play spoiler.

The Bears, locked in a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the eighth with the Eagles, got base hits from Amariah Hoerner and Wolfenbarker to set up runners at the corners for Christopher, who drove in Hoerner with a 5-3 RBI groundout as the return throw home on the slow-rolling grounder was too late to tag Hoerner, who slid in well ahead of the throw to send the Shawnee State softball program to the River States Conference Championship Series by claiming a 4-3 triumph in eight innings in the final game in its pod.

Straight Facts

With Friday's victory, Shawnee State officially clinched a top-five win mark in program history as its 36 wins this season matches the 1999 unit's winning mark of 36 games. This year's Bears are 36-9 overall while SSU finished 36-12 in '99. The Bears are just two wins away -- the two wins that would be needed to clinch the River States Conference Championship and the program's first NAIA postseason bid since 2006 -- from matching the 1998 team. That unit finished 38-10 overall.

This year's group -- in particular how this unit has won contests -- may be like none other in program history. Shawnee State has won 13 of its 36 contests by mercy rule, but the most special victories have come in its closest affairs.

In contests decided by two runs or less, the Bears are an astonishing 7-2 -- including 6-1 in contests decided by a single run and 4-0 since April 22 in those one-run affairs.

Game 1 -- Shawnee State 1, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods 0

Led by another terrific effort by Cassie Berry inside the circle, Shawnee State remained in the fight through Friday's 10 a.m. affair against Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, which saw neither team flinch throughout much of the contest.

Berry -- and the Shawnee State defense -- proved to be stout throughout the morning's effort. Despite seeing Saint Mary-of-the-Woods put at least one runner in scoring position in five out of the seven innings in Friday morning's affair, the Pomeroys came up empty every time as SSU forced SMWC to leave eight runners on base in the affair.

Berry, who fired a complete-game eight-hitter, came up with two consecutive outs on her own accord in the first, fourth, sixth and seventh frames to strand either one or more baserunners, and in the second, excellent defensive work by Lauren Spears and Sierra Dunnagan caught SMWC's Justyce Rohrabaugh to lift SSU out of a rough patch in the top half of the second frame.

Shawnee State, who had a runner advance into scoring position in the second, fourth, and sixth innings of work, were held in check by the Pomeroys' Summer Rocha through six frames of action.

However, that all changed in the seventh stanza.

A hard-hit groundball by Brittani Wolfenbarker was mishandled at shortstop -- opening the door for Jenna Christopher who roped a single into the outfield to put runners on first and second with nobody out.

That put Berry in the driver's seat to come up large once again, and true to form, the senior, as she did last Saturday against Rio Grande, blasted a ball deep to left center field to send Wolfenbarker -- whose arms were already raised in celebration as the latter rounded third base -- on home for the only run that Shawnee State proved to need.

Game 2 -- Shawnee State 4, Midway (Ky.) 3 (F/8)

Moving onto the final game of its pod against Midway -- who made a strong effort at the bottom of Friday's bracket to advance to a 4 p.m. matchup against Shawnee State -- the Bears started off swimmingly.

Jenna Christopher led off the contest with a bang -- as the speedy sophomore flew around the basepaths for her fifth triple of the 2024 season on a rocket to center field. When Cassie Berry brought in Christopher with ease on a sacrifice fly RBI, the following batter, Lauren Spears, delivered with a massive left field shot that not only cleared the outfield fence but went halfway up the trees behind it as Shawnee State blitzed Midway in the opening inning for two huge runs to collect a 2-0 lead.

Then, with two out in the bottom half of the second frame, singles by Brittani Wolfenbarker and Christopher set the table up, again, for Berry, who promptly delivered, again, with an RBI single to center field to score Wolfenbarker and give the Bears a 3-0 advantage through two innings of work.

Amariah Hoerner, who got the start in Game 2, threw gutsy softball, especially early on, as the sophomore worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the second frame of play and limited the Midway damage through four innings as Shawnee State maintained a 3-0 lead through that juncture.

Then the waters got rocky.

First, an RBI double by Midway's Kyra McCall brought Midway within 3-1 of SSU with one out in the frame. Then, with two gone in the same frame, Katie Rhodes evened the score at three apiece as her two-RBI double down the left field line evened the score at three runs apiece.

From that point forward, Hoerner beared down -- but so, too, did Midway's Alexia Hoskins, who forced Shawnee State to leave two runners on base in the fifth, sixth and seventh frames of action as both units went into the eighth inning tied at three runs apiece.

Then, Midway took a swipe at Shawnee State -- as singles by Rhodes and Payton Baum and an error allowed the Eagles to load the bases again.

Once more, however, Hoerner danced her way out of trouble.

A mid-year addition to the team, Hoerner showcased her incredible growth as a softball talent by working out of the jam, forcing a groundout and a pop out in yet another gritty masterpiece by the Miamisburg native who fired a complete game, 143-pitch effort.

However, Hoerner wasn't done adding to the cause.

With the Bears back up in the bottom of the eighth, Hoerner legged out an infield single, then advanced into scoring position as Wolfenbarker dropped a strongly-placed bunt single down, not only allowing Wolfenbarker to reach first base on the play but allowing Hoerner, in alert baserunning, to advance to third base as nobody was covering the bag.

This put Christopher in a position to deliver -- and the sophomore, playing just 55 minutes from her stomping grounds at Spring Valley High School in Huntington -- delivered.

With one slap hit, Christopher's slow-rolling groundball in addition to alert baserunning by Hoerner forced the Eagles to go for the 5-3 putout. Hoerner, who sprinted home on the throw, then slid well ahead of the tag to clinch the second consecutive walkoff victory for Shawnee State, and the third in the last six days for the Bears.

Additional

Jenna Christopher (5-for-8, triple, RBI, run scored), Brittani Wolfenbarker (5-for-7, two runs scored), Cassie Berry (3-for-7, double, three RBI) and Mackenzie Hale (4-for-7) led Shawnee State offensively in both contests.

With the victories in today's contests, Shawnee State (36-9) will play Rio Grande (32-17) in the River States Conference Softball Championship Series. The best-of-three championship series commences at 10 a.m. Saturday morning with the first to two victories in the series claiming the RSC Softball Championship and a berth into the NAIA Opening Round.

The contest will be streamed live at portal.stretchinternet.com/rsc and the Portsmouth Buffalo Wild Wings will be having a viewing party and will allow guests to come in at 9:50 a.m. prior to the 10 a.m. first pitch for those who can't make it. For those who can, the address of the park is Little Creek Park Road, South Charleston, W. Va. 25309. As one approaches the park, drive slowly. The field is located off of Charles Hagerman Way.

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