When Nina (Tiger) Korgan joined a local softball team after her high school graduation in Council Bluffs, IA, only one position was vacant—pitcher, because she got the date mixed up and almost missed practice. That move turned out to be one of the best in her career, which spanned the period 1934-1949 and earmarked her as one of the top pitchers of that era. Korgan won 49 of 40 games her first year and during a 14-year period (1934-1948), she played on six ASA national championship teams, five with the famed New Orleans, LA Jax and one with the Higgins Midgets of Tulsa, OK (1941). The 1941 national tournament with the Midgets turned out to be one of the best of her career. Korgan fanned 67 batters in 30 innings and hurled four shutouts and had a perfect game with 20 strikeouts in another game. She allowed only five hits in the four games. Korgan extended her scoreless inning streak to 67 innings in the 1942 ASA national tourney in her first year with New Orleans before it was ended in the seventh inning of the championship game in Detroit, MI. Nina won four games in that tourney with three of them one-hitters. Korgan continued to play for the Jax until retiring in 1949. She worked for the Jackson Brewing Company until retiring in 1978. Korgan passed away on July 19, 2009.
