Oxford, Ala. — Copiah-Lincoln Community College softball head coach Meleah Howard knew two things about her 2024-2025 team way back when school started 10 months ago in August.

“I knew they had some real grit about them and I thought they like to have fun maybe more than any team I have ever coached with the different personalities in this group,” said Howard.

On Saturday at Choccolocco Park, Howard’s team experienced the mountaintop of fun, as she gave that quote while surrounded by her players and their families in celebration of a 6-4 win over Jones College that made Co-Lin the 2025 NJCAA Division II National Champions.

It’s the second national title in the last three seasons for CLCC softball.

To get to that championship peak again, Howard’s squad needed every ounce of grittiness available to it on Saturday.

Co-Lin (48-6) came into the day with no losses in a double elimination event. A day prior, they had pounded Jones 9-1 in a matchup of the final two unbeaten squads.

Howard and her Wolf Pack went back to their hotel to rest while Jones beat defending national champion St. Johns River (Florida) 4-2 in an elimination game later that night.

Jones coach Tori Dew opted to stick with her sophomore pitcher Jayden Sawyer to start game one on Saturday.

Sawyer had thrown a complete game to beat St. Johns, her third of the tournament.

She gave up solo home runs to CLCC infielders Olivia Banes and Brelie Phillips, but only surrendered seven hits in an eventual 7-3 win for Jones that forced a winner-take-all matchup that began 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.

Howard had gone with sophomore pitcher Taylor Efferson to start game one. Efferson had been in the circle for Co-Lin in the 9-1 win on Friday.

On Saturday, the plan was to save sophomore pitcher Emily Richarde for game two, if game one wasn’t too close.

Howard stuck to that, giving the final three innings of the opener to sophomore pitcher Keegan McCorkle.

It was McCorkle who came in as relief on Thursday when St. Johns, the top-seeded team in the bracket, jumped out to an 8-0 lead over Co-Lin.

The Wolves howled back from behind in that game to win 9-8, but there would be no such rally once Jones went up in game one on Saturday.

For Co-Lin supporters, the loss in game one gave them an eerie feeling.

When Co-Lin softball won the first national championship in school history in 2023, it did so by beating Jones.

That tournament, played in Spartanburg, South Carolina, also had CLCC and Jones College as the final two unbeaten teams in its bracket.

And with Jones being in the cat-bird seat two years ago, it was Co-Lin who played the role of underdog to win twice and claim the title.

What calmed the nerves of Howard and the loud contingent of Wolf Pack fans in the stands was knowing that they had a rested Richarde ready to go in the circle for game two.

Jones countered by keeping Sawyer in the circle to start game two. The 5-foot-11 native of Mobile had thrown 90 pitches on Thursday against Murray State (Oklahoma) and 121 pitches against St. Johns on Friday.

In the opener Saturday, Sawyer threw another 101 pitches.

It all played out like a Hollywood script, as Richarde faced a Jones squad that handed her a 11-9 loss earlier this month in the NJCAA Region 23 Championship game on Mother’s Day in Wesson

That was the first career college loss in the circle for Richarde, who won 2025 MACCC Pitcher of the Year and has signed to play next season at Arkansas Tech University.

The Wolves went up 1-0 in the bottom of the second of the finale after a one-run home run by sophomore Avery Williams.

Williams was also responsible for the next run as her sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third scored Phillips, who had gotten aboard via a double.

Sawyer finally saw her day in the circle for Jones end after she walked Banes to start the bottom of the fifth. She ended up throwing 186 pitches on Saturday and she was rightfully named Pitcher of the Tournament in the post game awards ceremony.

Sawyer was replaced by Breelyn Cain on the rubber.

Co-Lin was able to manufacture two more runs after the pitching switch, as sophomore Kynlee Madere laid down a beautiful bunt that got her on and scored Banes from third. Freshman catcher Morgan Chisholm added an RBI single later in the fifth to put Co-Lin ahead 4-0.

Any feeling of safety for the Co-Lin fans were dashed in the next half inning when Jones scored three runs.

The tension was relieved in the bottom of the sixth though, as sophomore outfielder Carson Hughey led off with a single and then moved to third after a Banes single.

Efferson, who earned Tournament Most Valuable Player in a week filled with clutch home runs and pitching wins, delivered a two-run single that put the Pack ahead 6-3.

The Jones (52-10) batting order doesn’t have a single easy out in it and the Bobcats scored once to start the seventh before Richarde got Sawyer to hit a pop up that was caught for the final out by second baseman Abby Burnette.

Burnette and Hughey both prepped at Loyd Star.

Hughey was named to the All-Tournament team along with Phillips, Banes, and Madere.

In the top of the third of game two, Hughey sprinted back towards the centerfield fence on a hard hit ball by Jones freshman Laney Little.

The left handed Hughey had to reach up with every inch of her 5-foot frame to make the catch as she crashed into the fence.

She popped up smiling, grinning and gritty all rolled into one, a perfect avatar for the 2025 edition of Co-Lin softball.

“We talked after the first game that we haven’t lost two in a row all year and we weren’t about to start now,” said Hughey. “We thought it was going to be easy in game one and Jones made us pay. I’ve said we play best when we get punched in the mouth and I think you saw that today.”

Howard gives the credit to her girls for forging a team identity that was focused on being great together.

“They are a very close-knit group and what they figured out this year is that when you play for each other, you play for something bigger than yourself and today that’s what made them national champions.”