With seven state champions in the past eight years, the greater Houston area has established itself as the softball hotbed in Texas. This year's winner, Brazoswood, had to fight off a number of outstanding teams in its own region before tackling the best of the rest, and that makes the magnitude of its feat all the more remarkable: a 34-0 record. Star pitcher Nicole Neuerburg won 33 of those games without allowing a single earned run, a perfect season matched only by Dobie legend and U.S. Olympian Christa Williams in 1995. But unlike that dominant Dobie squad, Brazoswood clawed its way to one nail-biting, extra-inning victory after another: a 14-inning regional quarterfinal win over Kingwood, an 11-inning seesaw battle over Katy two days later, a 12-inning squeaker over defending champ Katy Taylor to clinch the region, and a 15-inning 1-0 marathon over Bryan in the state final. With the seniors contributing clutch hits and a different hero backing Neuerburg in the field almost every game, Brazoswood put together the kind of miracle season that usually happens only in sports fiction.