Title Talk

As he assessed his team heading into the 2004 season, rookie Angelo State softball coach Travis Scott knew he had a collection of winners. 

After all, they had ended the 2003 season as Lone Star Conference Co-Champions and LSC Tournament Champions.  They had made it to the regional tournament at St. Mary’s before falling to the hosts, 2-1 and 13-3.  But whatever they did in 2004, the Rambelles knew to have any hope of advancing farther in the NCAA tournament, they would have to take care of the Rattlers, who in the two previous seasons, had been their nemesis.

In a season filled with as much drama as success, the 2004 Rambelles became the first women’s team to earn a national title and the first to win an NCAA championship for Angelo State University.

As a first-year Angelo State coach, Scott guided the Rambelles to Lone Star Conference, South Central Regional and NCAA D-II championships while finishing the season with a 47-11 record.  Though the Rambelles had only 14 players on the team and one of them �“ starting shortstop Stephanie Fofi was lost due to injury in the year’s final regular season series �“ they had a great lead-off hitter in Alexis Wing, two ace pitchers in Claudia Lopez and Arin Spence and a clutch hitter in Michelle Hofmann, who earned MVP honors in the National Tournament.

Said Scott, “The team had an amazingly competitive attitude.  They had an amazing TEAM work ethic.  They knew they were talented, but pushed each other daily to work hard and not be satisfied with average.”

That team chemistry carried the Rambelles to a 16-2 LSC South record good enough for the division title, then the LSC Tournament title with three straight wins, all by a margin of three or more runs. 

Heading into the Regional Tournament, the Rambelles had 38 wins against 10 losses, three of which came against St. Mary’s.  In fact, since reviving the softball program in the 2002 season, ASU had a cumulative 4-14 record against the Rattlers as they headed into the regionals in San Antonio. 

“We had not won a game against them on their field in some time,” Scott said.  “We could beat them at home, but could not find a way to win on their field.”

After winning the first game of the regionals , 5-0, over Tarleton State, the Rambelles came up against St. Mary’s for what was the key game of the entire season because they not only beat their nemesis, 7-4, they also beat them on their home field. 

“That,” Scott said, “is when we knew that we could beat anybody, anywhere!”

In the National Tournament, the Rambelles opened against Shippensburg, which had a pitcher who was National Player of the Year in D-II.

“She was good,” said Scott, “but we were better and won,” 2-1.

Next up the Rambelles squeezed by Florida Southern in another 2-1 game, then faced St. Cloud State. 

“The game that gave me the feeling that this was something special was the one against St. Cloud State,” Scott recalled.  “We were down 2 to 1 in the 7th inning with two outs.  Arin Spence was on second base and Michelle Hofmann was on first.  Diana Faulkner drove a ball to left field that just cleared the fence for a three-run home run and gave us a 4-2 lead.”

That game, though, was far from over.

“St. Cloud loaded the bases in the bottom of the 7th off of Claudia Lopez, who had a great game going until that inning,” Scott said.  “Arin Spence came in in relief and got a ground out and a fly out to right field to end the game and earn a 4-2 come-from-behind-victory.  It was at that moment that you just knew that this team was destined to possibly win it all.”

The Rambelles beat Shippensburg again, 4-1, then lost to Florida Southern, 0-7, for their only loss not only in the double-elimination tournament but also in the entirety of post-season play.  In the championship game, ASU topped Florida Southern, 7-3, for the D-II crown.

“It is really difficult to pinpoint one or two key players off of a team that wins a National Championship,” Scott said in assessing the 2004 season.  “Alexis Wing was a great lead-off hitter with tremendous speed.  Michelle Hofmann was the MVP of the National Tournament as she hit four home runs during the tournament.  Claudia Lopez and Arin Spence gave us two ace pitchers who were obviously huge in putting us in position to win it all.  The funny thing is that we only had 14 players on the team!  One of them was Stephanie Fofi, who was our starting shortstop before having season-ending finger surgery due to a play at Kingsville during the last conference series.  This caused us to shuffle two players around where they stepped up and got the job done.

“Simply put, this was a group of competitors who had all of the elements necessary to do what they did.  They worked extremely hard.  They had leadership and a burning desire to be the best.  To top it off, nine of them were from out of state, but they absolutely loved Angelo State University!”

In his first season at Angelo State, Scott had earned ASU’s first NCAA national title.  Did he wonder what he was going to do for an encore?
“Yes,” Scott recalled six years later, “there was the thought of how am I going to follow a national championship up, but I took it as a challenge to continue to put a team on the field that Angelo State could be proud of.”

He has done just that.  Since 2004 his teams have averaged 46 wins a season and made two more trips to the NCAA D-II national championships.  Under him, they have won LSC Championships in 2004, 2008 and 2009 and South Division titles each of those years as well as in 2005.  This season they got off to the best start in program history.   

“Each player that has played for me for two seasons has a ring on her finger for winning a Regional Championship,” Scott said.  “That is something that I am very proud of!”