RALEIGH, N.C. – The Elon University softball team held its collective breath as it entered extra innings for the second day in a row at North Carolina State University's Marucci Classic on Saturday. As the game sat tied at 5-5 between the Phoenix and the North Dakota State University Bison,
Mauri Murray took things into her own hands as she smacked a two-run homer that would go on to be the winning score.
As the team went through the line to shake hands with its opponent after the game, cheers erupted as players ran back to their dugout to celebrate head coach Kathy Bocock reaching a key milestone – her 300th win.
"The emotions I had are for the girls because they put in so much hard work day in and day out," Bocock said. "For me, whether it was my 300th win [or not], I always like to see their faces after a win versus a loss. The emotion was just, OK, we've got that done and over, now we can move forward."
Bocock is no stranger to success. The veteran head coach has steered the ship for the Phoenix for 13 seasons, bringing her team to the conference tournament eight times. In 2023, she became the program's winningest coach with her 278rd win over James Madison University.
"It's a big moment but the key is you don't get to this moment without the people around you," Bocock said. "[It's] my alumni players, the players I have now, the coaches that have coached with me in the past and the coaches I have now, and then always having the administration's support and Elon's support."
In the role of the head coach, one must focus on countless tasks at once. For Bocock, tracking her career win total was not one of them.
"I don't keep up with stuff like that," Bocock said. "There's so many games. I wouldn't have known it until I read it somewhere."
She only found out beforehand for one reason – her eager team had been keeping an eye on the record and prepared to honor their coach as soon as she got that key win.
"I heard the girls kind of talking about it a little bit," Bocock said. "I had a conversation with the girls that morning and said, 'Look let's just get the elephant out of the room. We're going to get that win, so don't put the pressure on ourselves and we're going to get there.'"
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
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