The Ohio Jaguars 18-and-under softball team will be making its second consecutive trip to the USA ASA National Softball Tournament this week. There’s a definite difference for the squad this time around.

Instead of just being happy to be there, the Jaguars know that they belong.

“They came in this summer and looked around and saw a lot of really good players,” manager Scott Francis said. “They’ve seen each other play every summer. They know the teams from the area. They know everyone is committed to winning and getting better.

“They know we have good players at every position. They’re confident in everyone on the team. When you’re confident in everyone, you’re confident in the whole team.”

Four members of the squad that made the trip to College Station, Texas last year are still with the team and have made it clear to their teammates that they deserve to be making this year’s trip to Moline, Ill.

“The girls from last year have been telling the others that we’re able to win down there,” Scott Francis said. “The others totally believe them. They totally trust each other’s judgment. They tell them we can win and they very much believe it.”

The Jaguars will open play against the Arizona Hot Shots at 2:30 p.m. Monday when pool-play action begins. Win or lose, the Jaguars will face the winner or loser, depending their own outcome, of the game between the Lemont Rockers and the New Jersey Pride.

Those two games will determine the Jaguars’ seed in the double-elimination tournament that runs through Saturday.

St. Francis (Pa.) signee Courtney Francis and Indiana Tech signee Callie Busch are joined by Hannah Francis and Jenn Tennant as the holdovers.

The Jaguars are one of just six teams from Ohio that have earned a berth in the prestigious tournament. In all, about 120 teams from all over the country will be making the trek to Illinois.

“I believe there are just six teams from Ohio in the tournament this year,” Scott Francis said. “It’s not like with NSA or PONY. There are not tons of teams from each state. A limited number of teams from each state get to go.

“Everyone around the state knows that to make the USA ASA National Tournament is an honor. Everyone knows you have to earn your spot. We want to win more games and place higher than last year.”

In College Station, the Jaguars managed just one win in the double-elimination tournament.

Bats and arms have carried the Jaguars (28-14) back to Nationals this summer.

“We’ve had good pitching and good hitting,” Scott Francis said. “One picks the other up. If we lack pitching one game, the bats come through. If we aren’t hitting, the pitchers seem to pick them up. At times, it’s the top half of the lineup that carries us and at other times, it’s the bottom half.”

The Jaguars have a good combination of speed and power mixed in with line-drive hitters.

Lauren Childs and Katie McMellen are the rabbits, Courtney Francis and Jenn Tennant, as well as a few others at times, provide the power and the rest of the lineup is capable of hitting a liner into a gap at any given moment.

“Callie, Liz (Wilson), Megan (Dragon) and Jordyn (Cicon) all have enough strength to hit it deep,” Scott Francis said. “Bayle (Boggs) is very good at hitting the gaps. All through the lineup, we have girls that can step in and get the big hit. We also have girls that have great speed. Julie (Ezzo), Hannah and Jenn all hit the ball hard. Katie and Lauren have a lot of speed.”

The lineup changes with each and every game. But the order Scott Francis used last weekend in the 2008 Ohio Jaguars Summer Showcase

championship game was Childs, McMellen (a St. Francis signee), Courtney Francis, Busch, Tennant, Boggs, Hannah Francis, Dragon and

Ezzo. Cicon came off the bench to pinch hit and Wilson (a Marietta signee) was the flex player.

The Jaguars have also added another strong bat in Christina Hutchison for the tournament. She will be filling in for injured pitcher Kara Egelsky. Also out for the tournament with a sprained foot is Erica Villa.

That mix of power, speed and line-drive hitters is what makes the Jaguars so dangerous.

“We make other teams have to play defense,” Scott Francis said. “Some teams are one-dimensional. They have all big hitters or rely on only speed. With what we’re able to do, the defense can’t get into any rhythm. We have speed, big hitters and line-drive hitters. We have a little bit of everything. If a team has a defensive weakness, there’s a good chance we’ll find it.

The Jaguars will be making the trip with four pitchers very capable at winning every time they take the hill. Francis’ staff will include Dragon, Hutchison, Cicon and Ezzo.

“We have four pitchers that will go,” Scott Francis said. “Julie doesn’t have as much speed as the others, but she comes in and hits her spots. She has a nice changeup and when (batters) get their bats on the ball, they rarely hit it solid. When that changeup is working, she gets a lot of dribblers.

“Jordyn comes in and throws over 60,” Scott Francis said. “That increase in speed is only four or five miles an hour over the previous pitcher. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s huge. When she hits her spots, they have a hard time catching up with it.”

Dragon and Hutchison will most likely make the majority of starts with Cicon, who has three saves on the summer, and Ezzo working in relief.

“This summer, Megan’s been... well, she’s been Megan,” Scott Francis said. “She’s done an outstanding job for us. The last two tournaments she’s been especially sharp. Last weekend was maybe the best I’ve ever seen her pitch.”

And Hutchison is a second ace on the staff.

Having four pitchers might make all the difference over the course of the week.

“Through the early part of the week, you can get by with only one pitcher because you only play one game a day in pool play,” Scott Francis said. “But when you get to Thursday, Friday and even Saturday, you’re probably playing quite a few games in a day.

“With only one pitcher, you won’t last long. You need two (starters) that work back and forth and maybe some other (starters) as needed.”

That’s where Ezzo also fits into the equation.

“We’ll rely on (Hutchison and Dragon) to start,” Scott Francis said. “Jordyn comes in a throws a few innings and does very well there. Julie pitches long relief, but she can be another starter. Julie can go in there (as a starter) and I have complete confidence she can win.”

The one aspect of the game that will make or break the Jaguars is defense. So far this summer, that has not been much of an issue. But every mistake in the field on the big stage will be magnified.

“Once you’re in Illinois, defense is everything,” Scott Francis said. “If you’re not good at playing defense, you don’t stand a chance. We feel we have a real good chance to win some games.

“The defense does really well and the pitchers are solid. The tournament we played in (Binghamton) New York a couple of weeks ago was actually tougher than Nationals were last year.”

And that last point makes a big difference for the Jaguars this time around. Over the course of the summer, the Jaguars have played some of the best teams in this region as well as the best teams from a few others.

“Massillon and New York were every bit as tough as Nationals if not tougher,” Scott Francis said. “Massillon was just as tough and New York was tougher. After both of those tournaments, our girls walked away disappointed.

“Over those two tournaments we were about .500. The girls felt they were better than that. That’s a good sign.”

The sign Francis is referring to is that his kids believe they belong with the big dogs and are very capable of playing on that level.

“They expect a lot of themselves,” Scott Francis said. “They expect to win the game every time they’re on the field. The key, as with any sport, is expecting to win. There hasn’t been a game all year that they stepped on the field and felt they couldn’t get it done.

“There haven’t been many times where they felt they were beaten. There are only a couple of times they would say that a team beat us.”