Jacksonville, AL

#11 Sante Fe (48-17, 28-12, 3-2) was the designated away team vs. #4 Temple College (Texas) (56-7, 30-2, 3-1) in an elimination game in the NJCAA DI Softball World Series in Jacksonville, Alabama held at Jana McGinnis Field on the campus of Jacksonville State University. 

The Saints had just beaten #9 Eastern Florida 6-4 prior to taking the field vs the Leopards, however a weather delay halted the start of the game by two and a half hours. The Saints dropped their first game of the World Series 4-2 to Odessa College before winning three games in a row to keep their championship hopes alive. The first win came against #14 Gaston College (6-3 in 8 innings), the second vs. #5 Seminole State (OK) (4-3), and the third vs. #9 Eastern Florida (6-4). 

Temple was 2-0 entering the day beating #13 College of Southern Idaho 4-3 and #5 Seminole State (OK) 9-3 before dropping to #1 Florida SouthWestern 12-2 in 5 innings in the game prior to Santa Fe vs Eastern Florida to send them into the elimination bracket. 

Santa Fe became the designated away team as they take the bats in the top of the first inning. McKenzie Cox reached on a dropped pop-up by the Temple first baseman and Haylee McCrea walked. That was all the offensive production in the first as both runners were left on base. 

Morgyn Stevens then worked a quick 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the first holding both teams scoreless through one in Jacksonville. 

Temple pitching and defense stayed strong in the second inning, working a scoreless frame sending Santa Fe down in order. 

In the bottom of the second inning, the Leopards struck for two runs and opened a 2-0 second inning lead on Santa Fe. Two hits and an error did the job to push both runs across. 

Santa Fe batters were sent down in order in the top of the third inning as a 2-run blast by the Leopards doubles their lead to 4-0. 

Sydney English gets one back for the Saints in the top of the fourth with a no-doubt homerun to right field. The Saints load the bases with two outs but leave them loaded as the innings ends on a flyout to left. 

Temple scores two more in the third consecutive inning on another two run blast over the center field wall to increase their lead to 6-1. Chloe Woods comes in relief and records three straight outs to keep the Leopards at six runs. 

Molly Bender leads off with a single but a double play ends the inning as the Saints go three up three down. 

The Temple bats stay hot as they get a solo homerun to right field to increase their lead to 7-1 after 5 innings. 

Haylee McCrea reaches on a walk as the runner is left on first as Temple ends the inning with a strikeout. 

Chloe Woods works a scoreless 6th inning to send Santa Fe up to bat with three outs to score six or more runs. 

The Saints won't back down as Camryn VanGalder singles up the middle and McKenzie Cox doubles but Temple records three consecutive outs to put the game away as the #11 Saints fall to #4 Temple by a score of 7-1.

The team finishes with 48 wins, the most since the 2008 season when the Saints were ranked #1 and finished as national runners-up in that year's World Series and 17 losses, the lowest in Head Coach Savanah Webster's tenure. They also won multiple games in the World Series for the first time since 2008 (1-2 in 2013). Santa Fe finished second place in the Citrus Conference and was the last Florida team to receive a bid to the NJCAA, but survived in the World Series longer than #2 Northwest Florida State and #9 Eastern Florida, with only #1 Florida SouthWestern making the final four. 

You can view the full NJCAA DI Softball World Series page here: 2026 NJCAA DI Softball World Series Page

See photo galleries from all World Series games here: 2026 NJCAA DI Softball World Series Photo Gallery