College softball: Tooele grad helps lead SLCC

Whitney Holt batted .365 with a team-high 14 homers for the Bruins this season.

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Whitney Holt has won everywhere she's played, and her two years at Salt Lake Community College has been no exception.

The Bruins finished 53-11 this season and fell just one inning short of a national championship after allowing five runs in the seventh inning to Wallace State Community College in the winner-take-all title game.

Even though the Bruins weren't able to achieve their ultimate goal for the second consecutive season, Holt said there was little to regret about her second softball campaign at SLCC.

"I thought I had a great season, and I thought our team had a great season," she said. "At first, the nerves set in and everyone was still trying to be a team and getting to know each other. Then the season started. We went out every game going for the W's, and we did great."

Holt said the defining moment of the season came during the first of three games on the last morning of the national playoffs.

The Bruins were up against Pima Community College to compete in the championship round. Each team had scored only one run through seven innings, and it took almost three hours for SLCC to escape with an 8-5 win in 12 innings.

"It was just the greatest moment to see every single one of my teammates up on the bench cheering their loudest," Holt said. "Twelve innings is a lot of innings to play in softball, and we just kept pushing back. They pushed, and we finally pushed harder and got the win."

The Tooele High School graduate has played a lot of championship softball over her career, including winning the 2010 Class 4A state championship. Because of her extensive experience, Holt was an active leader for this team. She said she tries to be vocal when the team needs it, but she leads more by example since she tends to be a bit shy.

Holt helped the Bruins reach the title game by smashing a two-run homer in the 8-0 win.

But since the Bruins had lost to Wallace in an earlier round of the playoffs, the two teams went to a winner-take-all contest, where SLCC eventually fell just short.

"[We were] a bunch of girls that were just great, really athletic, and the coaches were great just like they were last year," she said. "It just wasn't in the cards for us, but we battled hard."