Odessa College’s Emily Brouse was one of the top pitchers in the nation at Iowa Western Community College in 2022 until a knee injury derailed her season.
The Harlan, Iowa native decided to move away from her home state to rehab the injury and give herself a chance to compete for a national crown.
Landing in the Permian Basin, Brouse worked through the fall to be ready when the Lady Wranglers opened their 2023 season in February.
She was, but struggled in her first two outings in nearly a year, dropping a pair of decisions in the season-opening Battle on the Bosque in Waco.
Brouse and her teammates haven’t struggled since.
Odessa College is 28-4 overall and ranked sixth in the nation.
The Lady Wranglers are 26-1 since the opening weekend and are coming off a dominating Western Junior College Athletic Conference opening weekend against Western Texas College.
Odessa College swept the four-game series, outscoring Western Texas 39-3 in the process.
Brouse was in control during her two trips to the circle, going 2-0 with a no-hitter on Saturday.
She gave us three hits on Friday and combined to strike out 19 in her two victories.
“She’s been phenomenal,” Odessa College head coach Jeff Jackson said. “She kind of had a slow start to the year, but I had a good talk with her about taking that pressure off of herself and getting back to that bulldog mentality.”
Brouse, along with teammate Ariel Gomez, earned Region 5 WJCAC Pitcher and Player of the Week honors after the series against Western Texas.
It is the seventh consecutive week that the Lady Wranglers have swept the recognition.
Brouse (7-2, 71 innings pitched, 56 strikeouts) is emerging as one of the top arms on the squad, but is far from the only weapon that Jackson has at his disposal.
Rayna Cruickshanks (14-1, 76.2 innings pitch, 111 strikeouts) has been the workhorse as Brouse worked herself back into shape, while freshmen Mia Perez (3-1, 29 IP, 33 strikeouts) and Avery Truss (4-0, 24.1) also have been solid in the circle.
“All of our girls know that no matter who we put in the circle, they are going to give us a really good chance to win that game,” Jackson said. “They are going to keep runs to a minimum, they are going to put us in a position to at least keep it close if our offense struggling and they know that and they feed off of that.
“I would hate to be an opposing team and you go face our No. 4 or 5 and she could easily be your No. 1 and that’s a really tough pill to swallow some times and it makes my job extremely hard in a good way where I have some tough decisions to make and I’ve got to find a way to make sure that we to continue to get innings from top to bottom so we don’t get stale on the bench.”
>> KEY ROAD TRIPS: The Wranglers’ baseball team has been on a roller coaster this season, the ups and downs keeping the team near .500 overall (16-14) and just below (5-7) in WJCAC play.
Odessa College struggled in a four-game series with rival Midland College on Saturday and Sunday, losing the first three games before earning a 10-3 victory to close out the weekend.
“We just got timely hits when we needed them,” Wranglers head coach Kurtis Lay said. “We got some big knocks from the middle of our order there with runners in scoring position; it would have been nice to have those timely hits in games one through three.”
The Wranglers will travel to face Frank Phillips in Borger on Friday and Saturday and then make another road trip to face New Mexico Military Institute on April 7-8 in Roswell, N.M.
A pair of series that will go a long way at determining Odessa College’s postseason plans.
“No. 1, we’ve got to get healthy,” Lay said. “The other thing is that we’ve got to show up and be ready to play for an entire weekend.
“It’s one of those situations in baseball, you’ve got two games in one day and if you don’t show up for that day, it’s two losses. Showing up back-to-back days is a sign of maturity and right now, we’re not quite there, we’ve got to get to where we can stay hooked up for two days in a row.”
>> Follow Lee Scheide on Twitter at @OALeeScheide
