MANCHESTER, N.H. – The nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College softball team will host its final regular-season doubleheaders of the 2021 season this weekend, battling Stonehill College starting on Friday, Apr. 30 at 2 p.m. on the South Athletic Fields.

Saint Anselm, the 19th-ranked team in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division II Poll, has won four games in a row, improving to 20-4 overall on the year and 17-3 against Northeast-10 Conference opponents. The Skyhawks have lost four straight contests, falling to 5-19 on the season while holding down a 4-16 conference record. On Saturday, the Hawks will celebrate their eight senior student-athletes during a pre-game ceremony.

The Hawks return to action after senior Morgan Perry (Bethany, Conn.) threw a perfect game against Saint Michael's in game one. Sophomore McKenna Smith (Old Town, Maine) led the Hawks in the next game with a new career-high of 14 strikeouts in the 4-0 victory on Saturday, Apr. 24. Last time out for Stonehill was on Tuesday, Apr. 27 when the Skyhawks were edged by Franklin Pierce by scores of 4-3 and 8-0 in six innings.

Live Statistics and Live Video of the weekend doubleheaders are available via the NE10 Now Network. As a reminder, off-campus spectators are not permitted to attend home Saint Anselm athletics contests.

SCOUTING NO. 19 SAINT ANSELM

• Saint Anselm heads into the final weekend of the regular season with a 20-4 overall record, sitting atop the Northeast Division of the Northeast-10 Conference with a 17-3 conference record and will look to secure a share of the Northeast-10 Conference Regular Season Championship with three wins over Stonehill. The Hawks hold the top spot ahead of Franklin Pierce who owns a 15-5 record against NE10 opponents.
• At the plate, junior Bre Klaiber (Ironton, Ohio) has been the most consistent throughout the season, owning a conference-leading .462 batting average. She has also driven in 17 runs batted in, a team-high. Klaiber has gotten a hit in each of the past nine games, including a perfect 4-for-4 day in game two against Saint Michael's on Saturday, Apr. 24 while also scoring one run in each of the last four contests.
• Sophomore Kylie Fitzpatrick (Danville, N.H.) has also played consistently, hitting .380 while also scoring a team-high 22 runs. In the past eight games, she has recorded two or more hits on four different occasions.
• Senior Lauren Washburn (Carmichael, Calif.) heads into four-game series with a .342 batting average, slashing five doubles and two home runs. The Hawks have spread out their hitting power throughout the team this season as six Hawks student-athletes have recorded two home runs each.
• The nation's top pitching staff is led Perry who threw a perfect game and a no-hitter against the same team, Saint Michael's. Due to that performance, she earned both NE10 and NFCA National Pitcher of the Week earlier this week.
• Perry ranks third among Division II pitchers with a 0.37 earned-run average, claiming 12 straight wins with eight coming via shutout. She is also three shutouts away from breaking the single-season shutouts record in program history, set by Lisa Petell '99 who recorded 10 in 1996.
• Over 76 innings pitched, she has only let up four runs. She has also struck out a total of 150 batters in the process, which ranks ninth in the single-season program history. Perry leads the Hawks with the best earned run average in the nation with a 0.72 mark.
• In Perry's career, she has struck out 704 batters, ranking sixth on the NE10 all-time strikeout list.
• Smith owns the sixth-best earned run average in the country with a 0.73 mark, averaging 8.1 strikeouts per seven innings to sit fourth in the NE10.

CHECKING OUT STONEHILL

• Throughout the season, the Skyhawks have defeated Southern New Hampshire three times. Stonehill also took one win from American Interational earlier in the season and then two from Saint Michael's in the month of April.
• The Skyhawks have totaled 91 runs over 24 games played, accumulating a team batting average of .257.
• Michelle Theilgard leads the squad with a .351 batting average, posting 26 hits and drawing a team-high 10 walks. She has also is tied for the team lead in home runs with three. Genna Hartman owns a .324 batting average through 74 at-bats, leading the team in runs batted in with 17.
• In the circle, Kelly Mayette is one of the Skyhawks pitchers, appearing in 17 games and holding a 3-7 record. Over 59 and two thirds innings, she has struck out 34 batters, averaging 3.99 per game. Molly Adamo has earned eight starts on the season, striking out 11 batters in the process along with two of her own teammates.

ALL-TIME vs. STONEHILL

• The Hawks hold the series advantage with a 21-19 record since 2004, defeating the Skyhawks eight straight times from 2017 to 2019 before Stonehill downed the Hawks in 2019, their last contests between the two institutions.
• In the past 10 matchups, the Hawks are 8-2 against the Skyhawks.