Bruins' Region 17 good fortune bites the dust

Summary

Salt Lake Community College entered the Region 17 tournament as defending champions, riding on a 19-game winning streak, claiming its conference regular season title and posting its highest ranking (No. 3) in the NJCAA Division I polls.

But all the Bruins' fortunes were turned away as they failed to defend their Region 17 tournament championship by losing twice to No. 17 Dixie State College, 3-2, 6-2.

The Bruins remained in Salt Lake City without the hardware that they played so brilliantly for throughout the season as they finished five games ahead of the second place Dixie State College in the regular season.

They can keep some awards which should be heading toward several Bruin players, who topped majority of the major individual statistics in the conference.

Bree Feroah, a former three-sport standout at Copper Hills High School, led the conference in five categories: batting average (.548), on-base percentage (.585), runs scored (62), hits (92) and stolen bases (35).

She was in the top five in slugging percentage (.726, second) and RBIs (39, fifth).

Jamie Uragami led the conference in RBIs with 61 and was tied in the lead with 14 doubles. She was in the top 5 in: Batting average (.420 3rd), slugging percentage (.622 4th), on-base percentage (.485 3rd), and hits (60 5th). She played at Roy High School, where she earned four varsity letters in softball.

Sherri Shrock was an all-stater at Weber High School and pitched the Bruins to the region championship last year. She finished with 18 wins (2nd in the conference), 1.30 ERA (3rd) and led all pitchers in strikeouts (130).

Kim Todd is one of four freshman on the team. She played at Alta High School where she helped the Hawks claim two state championships (2001,04). Her resume includes a conference-leading .65 ERA, .197 opposing batter's batting AVG (2nd), and 12 wins (3rd).

BASEBALL: The Bruins posted the third best record in the conference, four games behind the regular season champs C.C. of Southern Nevada.

They entered the tournament on a five game winning streak before seeing a similar fate as the Bruin softball team, losing twice to Dixie State College 10-9, 4-1.

Some players that was in the Top 5 in statistical categories were: Nick Ison led the conference with 88 strikeouts and had an 1.62 ERA. He played at Hillcrest High School where he had four letters in baseball.

Jeremy Thomas, a former All-State twice at Taylorsville High School, was third in the conference with 40 RBIs.

Eric King had a .489 slugging percentage (4th) and a .450 on-base percentage (2nd).

E-mail: jlawrence@desnews.com