MANCHESTER, N.H. – The nationally-ranked and second-seeded Saint Anselm College softball team defeated the No. 3-seed from Adelphi University, 11-1, in five innings, to open the NCAA Division II East Region Championship on Thursday afternoon at the South Athletic Fields.

The Hawks improve to 30-4 on the season, recording the fifth 30-or-more win campaign in program history. Saint Anselm, the 18th-ranked team in NCAA Division II according to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division II Poll, will advance to the second round and play top-seeded Georgian Court in game seven on Friday, May 21 at 11 a.m. for a chance to go to the East Region final to be played on Saturday.

The Panthers, who the Hawks battled in the NE10 Championship last weekend, fall to 28-9 but were able to survive another day, beating fifth-seeded New Haven by a 5-1 score in Thursday's elimination game. 

The 11 runs on Thursday for Saint Anselm marked the most in a single NCAA Tournament game in program history with the highest coming in 2019 in the NCAA Division II Super Regional, scoring nine runs.

Seniors Shannon Colson (Rochester, N.H.) and Abbie Murrell (Scarborough, Maine) each had two hits on the day Colson broke the all-time at-bats record in program history with a 610 total.

After earning Division II Conference Commissioner Association (D2CCA) East Region Pitcher of the Year this week, senior Morgan Perry (Bethany, Conn.) allowed just three hits and one run against the Panthers, striking out six batters. She earned her 18th win on the season while also increasing her season strikeout mark to 188. Perry now owns the fourth-best career strikeout mark in the Northeast-10 Conference history with 750, surpassing Marnie Sundberg of Le Moyne.

Junior Bre Klaiber (Ironton, Ohio) started the Hawks six-run first inning with a bang as she recorded a three-run home run over the center field wall, extending her streak of reaching base to 20 games with the homer. After two walks and a single by freshman Gracie O'Hara (Shrewsbury, Mass.), Murrell drove in two runs, extending the Hawks advantage to 5-0 with a single through the right side.

With runners on second and third, an Adelphi miscue by the third baseman allowed senior Kat Stackrow (Wynantskill, N.Y.) to score. The Hawks ended the opening inning with a four-hit six-run inning.

Perry fanned four of the game's first six batters to open the game before Hannah Pineda knocked a home run out of the park, narrowing the deficit to a five-run game, 6-1. Perry and the Hawks defense would get out of the inning with one runner left on base following another Perry strikeout.

In the next half inning, senior Erin Thompson (Newton, N.H.) belted her first home run of the season and the fifth of her career to take a 7-1 lead. Out of the six home runs Thompson has hit in her Hawks career, three of them have come in postseason play and Thursday's bomb was the second to occur in the NCAA tournament. After another Murrell single, junior Bailey Cain (Wellington, Fla.) hit a line drive up the middle that allowed Stackrow to score for the second time, making it a seven-run game.

Two at-bats later, Colson reached on a dropped fly ball by the left fielder which brought in two runs. Sophomore Kylie Fitzpatrick (Danville, N.H.) rounded out the Hawks scoring with a single up the middle, driving in her teammate from second and plating her team's 11th run of the contest.