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MANCHESTER, N.H. – After a 13-year hiatus, the Saint Anselm College softball team is tournament bound for just the second time in school history. The Hawks will take on crosstown rival Southern New Hampshire University in an NCAA East Region First Round matchup Friday at 2 p.m. at SNHU's Penmen Field.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
All Games Played at Southern N.H. University's Penmen Field.
Friday, May 8
Game 1: #2 Southern N.H. (31-6) vs. #7 Saint Anselm (22-12) – 2 p.m.
Game 2: #3 Queens (N.Y.) (35-14) vs. #6 LIU Post (30-15-1) – 4:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 9
Game 3: Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner – 11:30 a.m.
Game 4: Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser – 2 p.m.
Game 5: Game 3 Loser vs. Game 4 Winner – 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 10
Game 6: Game 3 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner – 1:30 p.m.
Game 7: Game 6 Winner vs. Game 6 Loser (If Necessary) – 4 p.m.
TICKET INFO
Tickets will go on sale 90 minutes prior to the first scheduled game of the day.
Individual session tickets for tournament play will be as follows:
Adults - $5
Senior Citizens - $3
Students w/ I.D. - $3
Children, ages 2-12 - $3
Children under the age of 2 shall be admitted free with an accompanying paying adult.
DIRECTIONS & PARKING
Penmen Field is located on the north end of the SNHU campus. The general parking lot for spectators is located near field across the street from Webster Hall or in the Webster Hall parking lot.
SCOUTING THE HAWKS
Saint Anselm, which earned its second straight berth in the Northeast-10 Second Round this season, knocked off Assumption 3-0 last Tuesday in the league tournament opener before falling to Pace 3-2 in Thursday's quarterfinal round. The Hawks got clutch RBI's from freshmen Megan Murrell (Scarborough, Maine) and Shannon McLaughlin (Tewksbury, Mass.) and junior Michaela Criscione (Franklin, Mass.) in Tuesday's win, and senior Hannah Byrne (Lynn, Mass.) blasted her third homerun of the year in solo fashion Thursday.
For the season, junior Pattie Turner (Warwick, R.I.) leads the team with a .386 batting average and a .596 slugging percentage en route to All-Northeast-10 Second Team honors. Her three triples on the season ranks 93rd overall and 81st in triples per game. Freshman Amanda Bickford (Salem, N.H.) was named to the NE-10 Third Team and the All-Rookie Team and has tallied a team-high 49 hits with eight doubles and a pair of triples.
In the circle, Seniors Tayla Trask (Lincoln, Maine) and Paige Cormier (Rochester, N.H.) have polished off their careers with another strong season, leading the Hawks to a 2.88 ERA on the season. Trask alone finished the season ranked fourth in the NE-10 with a 1.80 ERA that also ranked among the top 50 pitchers in the country, while issuing 7.1 strikeouts per game. Also among the national ranks, Cormier's 0.77 walks per seven innings statistic was 13th in the country.
SCOUTING THE PENMEN
Southern N.H. enters the postseason riding a 10-game win streak and has given up no more than three runs with five shutouts over that span. The Penmen have done so on both sides of the game, posting a nation-leading .983 fielding percentage to accompany a 1.47 team ERA that ranks fourth in all of Division II. Offensively, SNHU is batting .336 as a team, which is 16th- best in the country, and also ranks in the top 20 in doubles per game (1.70) and team slugging percentage (.515).
Senior pitcher Ali Maloof is the epitome of the aforementioned statistics, having been named the Northeast-10 Conference Player and Pitcher of the Year last week. She leads the team with a .427 batting average, a .471 on-base percentage owns a slugging percentage of .637. From the rubber, she boasts a league-best ERA of 1.36 that also ranks inside the top 20 hurlers in Division II, and issues eight strikeouts per contest. It is the third straight season she has earned Pitcher of the Year, but snags her first Player of the Year accolade this season.
As mentioned, the Penmen are batting an impressive .336 overall with Maloof and junior Mo Hannan each accruing .400-plus batting averages that both rank among the top 100 batters in all of Division II. SNHU has outscored opponents 228-66 on the year and has tallied 150 more this and 141 more RBI than opposing teams. Paired with its stingy defense, Southern N.H. has proven why it also owns the sixth-best win percentage in the nation.
This is the third tournament berth and second straight for Southern N.H., who has compiled a 4-3 overall record in NCAA postseason play. Last season, the Penmen were knocked out of the East 1 Region championship game by LIU-Post in a 7-6, 13-inning marathon.
SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS
Queens College (N.Y.) has won 12 straight games entering its Friday matchup against East Coast Conference foe LIU-Post, including beating the Pioneers twice in the league tournament just last weekend. The Knights
Much like weekend host Southern New Hampshire, Queens boasts one of the top pitchers in the nation in senior Elizabeth Yaroch, who ranks fourth in the entire country with a 1.04 ERA on the season. Offensively, the Knights are led by senior Monique Roberge who is hitting just under .400 on the year with 56 hits, 15 homeruns and 58 RBI through 49 games played. Queens, which has outscored opponents 242-135 on the year, has nine different players with at least 12 RBI.
Queens is appearing in its sixth NCAA Regional and second straight postseason series this weekend. Last season, the Knights shut out Adelphi in a First Round matchup 5-0, before falling to eventual region finalist Caldwell 5-2 and getting eliminated by Georgian Court 5-4.
SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
LIU-Post enters Friday's matchup against ECC rival Queens after scraping out a 5-8-1 record over the past two weeks. Despite dropping three straight to the Knights, Post was the last team to hand Queens a loss via a 3-0 defeat back on April 19.
Offensive consistency has been the Pioneers' method of operation this season, as despite no Pioneer having a batting average more than .300, all 10 full-time players are batting at least .210 on the season. Pitching has also been a strength for Post, which enters Friday's contest with a 2.19 ERA as a staff. Sophomore hurler Ashley Martin leads the Pioneers with a 1.79 ERA in nearly 150 innings of work.
LIU-Post earned its 14th straight berth in the NCAA regional round this season and 19th in school history. The Pioneers are 35-36 overall in the postseason, including last year's East Region Championship run.
THIRTEEN YEARS LATER
Saint Anselm will make its second NCAA berth in school history 13 years after taking its maiden voyage back in 2002. That season, the Hawks received a first round bye in the six-team Northeast Regional in North Andover, Mass., and knocked off LIU-Post (then called C.W. Post) in its first ever postseason game. Senior Erica Christopher (Newtown, Conn.) and junior Kristen Haubrich (Concord, N.H.) each hit a homerun and junior pitcher Andrea Messina (Woburn, Mass.) improved to 13-5 on the year in the Hawk's 7-1 victory over the Pioneers.
Saint Anselm went on to lose its next two regional games, being shutout 5-0 to eventual regional champion Le Moyne College before getting eliminated from the tournament by American International College, 2-1. The Hawks finished that 2002 season 27-15 overall.
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