Vanguard University

All-Americans: Shannon O'Rourke (IF, Second Team), Shannon Saylor (P, Second Team)

One of nine teams to win over 40 games in program history, the 1995 softball team was the high water mark in the early 1990s for Southern California College.  

The put up a 44-22 record at the end of the year, which included a Golden State Athletic Conference regular season championship, a 2-2 showing at the NAIA District playoffs, and the first appearance for SCC/Vanguard in the NAIA World Series.

SCC lost a pair of games to UC Santa Barbara to start the campaign but then went on to win five straight games.  The team would also win five games in succession over March 4 to March 14 but that was just a sign of things to come.  SCC would win six in a row over two days at a tournament before droping the final game.  But that would be the lone loss the squad would have over the next two weeks, as SCC racked up 12 wins in a row.  Going 7-2 down the stretch, the Lions took the GSAC crown and went on to the NAIA District playoffs against Azusa Pacific and Hawaii Pacific.  The team went 2-2 but did enough to qualify for the NAIA Worlds Series.

Columbia, Missouri, was the location for the World Series, the final year that the site would host the NAIA Softball World Series.  SCC would make quite the impression in their first trip to the tournament by winning the first three games it played in, allowing only one run over that stretch.  With the 2-1 win over Belmont (Tenn.) and 3-0 wins over Williams Woods and Puget Sound, the team would square off against the top-seeded Stars of Oklahoma City.  SCC would take its first loss of the tournament 4-0, but they still had one life to play with.  SCC took on Puget Sound in a rematch and while the game would be close, Puget Sound would emerge with a 4-3 to deny SCC a shot at a national title.  OKCU would go on to beat Puget Sound in the title game soon thereafter, but the Lions had already made their mark in the history book.  

The 1995 softball team held the record for most games played (66) in a single season and the lineup top in most at bats in a single year (1,666).  The offense holds the record for the fifth-most hits in a single season (485), the sixth-most runs scored (294), the second-most triples (26), eighth in total bases (616), 10th in most RBI (214), fifth in walks (157), the most sacrifice hits (131), the mos stolen bases (144), and most stolen base attempts (169). 

On the other side of the ball, the team is still tied for fourth all-time with 19 shutouts, has the most innings pitched (432), is third in total strikeouts (318), and remains second with 11 runners picked off in one year.  

With one of the deepest runs in the NAIA World Series in program history and plenty of records held, the 1995 softball team is remains in the pantheon of singles season at SCC/VU.