Do you believe in miracles? The Lady Jacks apparently do.

And because of that, today they find themselves on the verge of completing an historic comeback at the West Region championships and just one win from their first trip to nationals in seven years.

The Humboldt State women certainly didn’t make it easy on themselves by losing heavily to Cal State San Bernardino on the opening day, after which most observers would have been forgiven for writing them off as yet another Lady Jacks postseason letdown.

But whatever everybody else thought, the Jacks never stopped believing in themselves.

“I think they showed, regardless of what happens (today), they have character,” HSU head coach Frank Cheek said of his players. “Very few teams lose the first game and come back, and to lose the first game and get thumped (10-1) and come back is miraculous.”

In fact, no team in the history of the West Region has ever lost the opening game and gone on to win six straight to take the championship, with the field expanding to eight teams just three years ago.

After Saturday’s thrilling 1-0 win over previously undefeated Western Oregon, HSU designated hitter Ashley Oltjenbruns, who is 8-for-19 to lead the Jacks at the plate in tourney play, talked about how the team has approached the five must-win games over the past three days.

“We took it one game at a time,” she said. “We’re all tired, but this is what we live for. This is what we’ve been practicing for all year.”

Oltjenbruns, along with freshman Nikki Ketteringham (8-for-20) and juniors Marissa Slattery (7-for-22) and Natalie Galletly (6-for-20) have been instrumental in the turnaround, providing the bulk of the offense.

But it has been pitcher Lizzy Prescott who has been the real star, with the senior All-American frustrating the best bats in the West on the way to a region-playoff record five wins in one year.

Prescott has been building toward this moment the entire season, and if she hadn’t pitched so many games during the regular season and taken on such a heavy workload, she would not have been prepared to throw a remarkable 40 innings in four days (and counting) in the postseason.

Whether that finally takes its toll today remains to be seen, but she appears to be getting stronger as the tournament has progressed and on Saturday she shut out the hottest team in the region which had scored 20 runs in its previous three games.

Saturday’s 14 innings pitched gives her a single-season school record 362 innings, one more than Jessame Kendall in 2001, and one of numerous school records the senior has set this week.

Fortunately for Jacks fans, Prescott appears to be showing no fatigue from the extensive use and every time she takes the field now, she probably feels little outside of adrenaline.

Her remarkable career at HSU is coming to an end, and, naturally, she seems reluctant to let the moment pass. But more importantly, she is making the most of her time to shine and is playing up to the level we expected her to perform at in her most important games of all.

HSU fans will no doubt miss Lizzy Prescott when her brilliant career finally comes to an end, but the way she’s playing in the postseason right now, that might not happen for several more days.

(Opinions expressed in columns do not necessarily reflect those of The Eureka Reporter.)