It was around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23 – an overcast day at Beedie Field in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada – when head coach Mike Larabee got the Gatorade bath.

The Wildcats just won the GNAC regular season title – their third league title overall, and first since 2010 and 2011, when they won back-to-back.

“Winning the regular season conference title was a big confidence booster for the whole team going into postseason,” said senior catcher Austin Wilkerson

Even though Central was in first place going into the final weekend of the season, the Wildcats still hadn’t qualified to play in the GNAC tournament.

They played Western Washington University and Simon Fraser University over the weekend. Both teams were on the outside looking in and trying to spoil Central’s run. They were nearly successful.

Central traveled to Western Washington on Friday for two games against the Vikings.

In game one, the Wildcats had an early 1-0 lead against freshman pitcher Makinlee Sellevold. In the fifth inning, the Vikings finally answered by serving up a single down the right field line with two runners in scoring position.

“She got her hands above a pretty good pitch, a riseball, 0-2 pitch, up out of the zone,” Larabee said.

That hit scored two runs for the Vikings. Central couldn’t answer and got three hits the entire game.

“Western definitely deserved that win,” Larabee said.

Central answered in the second game winning 7-5 behind a three-run third inning and a four-run fifth inning. With the win, Central clinched their berth in the GNAC tournament.

Then, the Wildcats needed to win one of their final two games against Simon Fraser to guarantee first place in the GNAC.

In the first game, Central was down 5-3 going into the sixth but scored three runs taking a 6-5 lead. In Simon Fraser’s turn in the sixth inning, with two runners on base, sophomore outfielder Taylor Gillis tripled home both runners.

”Their hitter hit a ball, landed right on the right field line,” Larabee said.

Central couldn’t muster more hits of their own, and lost 7-5.

“You gotta have a short memory,” Larabee said. “I told them ‘let it hurt a little bit for 10 to 15 minutes, then let it go.’”

And let it go they did. Central came out in the second game and scored 11 runs in the first inning.

“That first inning showed we wanted it bad,” Wilkerson said.

The Wildcats ended up scoring 19 runs on 22 hits and ended the game while giving up one run in the process. Central finished its final regular season game in five innings.

Central finished one-game ahead of Western Oregon University and Concordia University and two games ahead of Saint Martin’s University. All three of these teams join Central at the GNAC Softball Championship Tournament.

“It’s really exciting but it’s actually really intense at the same time because it’s the best teams in the GNAC, and you just know that you have to bring your A-game every single game,” said junior pitcher Kiana Wood.

Concordia and Western Oregon will open up the tournament facing each other. Western Oregon has won 13 of their last 18 games. Both teams have identical conference records.

Central opens against host Saint Martin’s in the second game. The Saints held first place for the majority of the season, until Central won three of four and overtook first place.

Regardless of postseason tournament seeds, every team has an equal chance to win the tournament.

“It usually boils down to a timely hit, and playing really good defense,” Larabee said. “The team that usually wins this is the team that doesn’t give the ballgame away.”