On Monday, Pleasant Home’s Brittany Ward signed her second softball scholarship to play at Southern Union State Community College.

Last month, in addition to helping lead her team to a third place finish at the Class 1A state tournament, she signed her first softball scholarship with Faulkner State Community College out of Bay Minette, which fell through.

Ward said the reason why she is now going to Southern Union is because things “just didn’t work out” at Faulkner.

“I thought everything was going to be okay down there, but it just didn’t work out with the coach,” Ward said. “I tried to get another scholarship and Southern Union offered me one. I went up there and toured the school and signed with them.”

Ward said finding out about Faulkner was a “crushing” experience.

“I thought that there was nothing else I could do because I thought I was going to Faulkner State for college,” she said. “Then, when (the Faulkner coach) told me things didn’t work out on that, it kind of crushed me. I got down on myself about it.”

Ward said she doesn’t really know what happened at Faulkner, but guesses they recruited somebody better.

Before signing her first scholarship with Faulkner, Ward said she had been contacted by Southern Union.

“Their coach was interested in me earlier in the year, but he had heard that I was going to Faulkner State and thought he couldn’t get me then,” Ward said. “Then, when he heard about me not going to Faulkner State, he called and tried to get me on.

“They are a really good school,” she said. “They have a new coach this year and their team is really good. They have a lot of nice people and I think it will be a really good school to go to.”

Ward said Pleasant Home coach Jimmy Reeves helped her a lot in trying to get her to play at Southern Union.

“Coach really tried to tell me that Southern Union would be a good school to go to,” she said. “He helped me get on there. He talked to the coach and got the coach interested in me more.”

Ward said she will play shortstop or in the infield at Southern Union.

Now that this is all over, Ward said she is still beside herself that this happened.

“It’s kind of hard to get used to,” she said. “Having to go from not going to a college and then getting a two-year scholarship. I’m happy, but then again it’s … I don’t know, really.”

Ward will major in nursing and is the daughter of Randy and Lisa Ward of Andalusia.