Marycille Brumby part of championship season for UNG
♦ The Nighthawks won the NCAA Division II national championship last week in Chattanooga.
The University of North Georgia softball team and Cedartown’s Marycille Brumby can claim a national championship thanks to a stellar season that included contributions from the freshman infielder.
The Nighthawks won the 2023 NCAA Division II national championship last week, defeating Grand Valley State 3-0 last Wednesday at Frost Stadium at Warner Park in Chattanooga to capture the program’s second national title.
Junior pitcher Kristen Davis threw a complete-game shutout for the second time in two days to cap off an amazing season and clinch the championship. Davis, who played for Sonoraville High School, threw 17 2/3 innings in the championship round, including two complete game shutouts. She allowed 12 hits in that span, while giving up only three earned runs and striking out nine. She also didn’t give up a run in her final 14 innings in the circle
At the plate, some savvy baserunning and timely hitting gave the Nighthawks an advantage. Hannah Forehand led the way with two hits, followed by Sophie Mooney and Sydney Blair, who drove in one run each.
The Nighthawks (64-7) scored once in the third and twice in the fourth, with Mooney’s left-field single driving in Jolie Lester opening up the scoring before Sydney Blair drove in Forehand in the fourth. Olivia Sinquefield capped off the scoring with a dash for the plate after a dropped third strike giving North Georgia one more run of a cushion heading into the final three frames.
UNG added another win to the alltime single-season program record, earning 64 wins in 71 games, losing just once in NCAA postseason play.
A powerhouse for the Lady Bulldogs during her time at Cedartown, Brumby appeared in 32 games as a freshman and started four games at first base. While she didn’t get a plate appearance during the national championship tournament, she had a solid first season for the Nighthawks.
Brumby finished with a .324 average with 12 RBIs, six doubles, a triple and seven runs in 37 at-bats. She had a .541 slugging percentage and .413 on-base percentage with seven walks.
Davis was an ace pitcher this past season, posting 20 wins and two saves with one loss while sporting a 2.59 ERA in 26 starts and four relief appearances in the circle.
She will begin her senior season next year with a 20-game win streak as all those victories came after she suffered a loss in her first appearance of the year in the team’s second game of 2023 back on Feb. 4.
The team won the Peach Belt Conference regular season championship this year with a 24-3 record, but had to win the Peach Belt Conference tournament the hard way after losing their first game there. Facing elimination with one more loss in the double-elimination event, they had to win six straight games to advance to the Division II Southeast Regional at Haines & Carolynn Hill Stadium in Dahlonega.
North Georgia won three straight games in the Southeast Regional with Davis throwing a complete game, twohitter for an 8-0 victory over King University in the first game and then getting the win in the third and decisive game when she started and worked the first three innings before the bullpen took over.
In the Super Regional, North Georgia swept Wingate, 8-0 and 1-0, in two games with Davis pitching all seven innings in the second win, which punched their ticket to the championship series.
North Georgia began play at the D-2 championship Thursday, May 25, and after winning their first two games, they lost 3-1 to the University
of Texas-Tyler in Game 3, meaning they had to come through the loser’s bracket again to win a national title.
And that is exactly what they did — again
After losing to UT-Tyler, the Nighthawks had to come right back and play them again and Davis hurled seven innings of shutout softball in a 2-0 win that kept them alive and sent the team from Texas back to the Lone Star State.
That moved them to the championship finals against Grand Valley State, which they needed to beat twice because GVS was the last unbeaten team in the field.
The Lady Nighthawks won Game 1 last Tuesday night 7-3 and then, with Davis not yielding a run Wednesday, they silenced the team from Allendale, Michigan 3-0 in the second winnertake-all game for their national title.