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Erin Thompson, Kylie Fitzpatrick

PREVIEW: NCAA National Championship - No. 18 softball vs. West Chester

5/25/2021 11:30:00 PM

DENVER – The Saint Anselm College softball team, ranked 18th in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division II National Poll, will open play in the NCAA Division II National Championship on Thursday, May 27 at 6 p.m. EST against West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Playing as the No. 2 seed in the eight-team championship, the Hawks and Golden Rams will battle on the campus of Metropolitan State University (MSU) Denver. The Northeast-10 Conference regular and post-season champions, Saint Anselm owns a 32-5 overall record after dropping just one contest in the East Region Championship, hosted by the Hawks in Manchester, N.H. The Hawks own the best earned-run average in all of NCAA Division II (0.77).

West Chester, victors in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championship and the Atlantic Region title-holders, carries a 34-14 overall record. One of the nation's top hitting programs, the Golden Rams rank seventh nationally with a .362 team batting average.

In the eight-team field at the National Championship, there are seven teams which are ranked in the NFCA National Poll. The 2019 national champions from Augustana (S.D.) own the top spot in the rankings.

Saint Anselm saw its season-long winning streak of 15 games snapped with a narrow two-run loss in Saturday's opener against No. 22 Georgian Court, but the Hawks responded well in the "if necessary" game to blank the Lions for the team's second East Region Championship in three years (2018, 2021).

The Golden Rams won the Atlantic Region title for the third consecutive season, but needed some late-inning heroics to do so. A ground ball to shortstop in the bottom of the seventh plated the game-winning run in walk-off fashion, giving West Chester its 34th victory of the 2021 campaign.

Single-game tickets are available and a Live Video broadcast will air on NCAA.com throughout the championship. For more information, check out MSU Denver's Championship Central page.

LAST TIME OUT

For the second time in program history, the nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College softball program won the NCAA Division II East Region Championship.

With Saturday's 4-0 victory over nationally-ranked Georgian Court in the "if-necessary" game, Saint Anselm has punched its ticket to the eight-team 2021 NCAA Division II National Championship to be held in Denver, Colo. starting Thursday, May 27. The Hawks return to the national stage just three years after the program's historic run to the national championship series in 2018.

Entering the day needing just one victory over Georgian Court, the Lions were able to sneak past the Hawks by a 3-1 margin in the opener. However, the Hawks turned the tables in the day's second game, claiming a four-run shutout victory with the help of a five-hitter pitched by sophomore McKenna Smith (Old Town, Maine).

Saint Anselm saw its season-long winning streak of 15 games snapped with the two-run loss in the opener to Georgian Court, but the Hawks responded well to blank the Lions in game two and rack up the team's 32nd victory of the 2021 campaign. The Hawks enter the National Championship with a 32-5 overall record while the Lions' historic season comes to a close with a 38-6 overall record.

Saint Anselm dropped the first game of the afternoon by a 3-1 margin. The Hawks got on the scoreboard as senior Kat Stackrow (Wynantskill, N.Y.) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, allowing classmate Shannon Colson (Rochester, N.H.) to cross the plate. A two-run double by Georgian Court in the top of the fifth inning pushed the visitors ahead before a late insurance run rounded out the game's scoring in the top of the seventh inning.

A three-run third inning propelled the Hawks to a game two victory over Georgian Court as Smith's seven-strikeout performance kept the Lions off the scoreboard. Batting as the visiting team, senior Erin Thompson (Newton, N.H.) drew a lead-off walk as part of an 11-pitch at-bat. Colson followed with a single before O'Hara drew a quick four-pitch walk, forcing the Georgian Court coach to re-insert its starting pitcher from game one.

Throwing a complete game victory in game one, the Georgian Court starter came into the game once again, this time with the bases loaded and gave up an infield single to Bre Klaiber (Ironton, Ohio) that drove in Thompson from third. Sophomore Kylie Fitzpatrick (Newton, N.H.) followed later in the inning with a bases-loaded walk before Stackrow delivered a sacrifice fly, upping the Hawks lead to 3-0 before the frame's conclusion.

Smith held onto a no-hitter until the bottom of the third with two outs when Georgian Court stroked a single to left field. In that span, however, she struck out three batters to keep momentum on the Hawks' side. The only run for the rest of the game by either team was a solo home run by O'Hara that sailed over the center field wall in the top of the seventh inning.

Smith gave up just three walks on the day and fanned seven batters across a 100-plus pitch outing. Freshman Gracie O'Hara (Shrewsbury, Mass.) led the Hawks in the second game with two hits and she finished the day as the only student-athlete on the Saint Anselm roster to have multiple hits in each game of the twinbill. She also owns the longest active hitting streak on the team, logging at least one hit in each of the past five games.

SCOUTING SAINT ANSELM

  • Saint Anselm has made it to the National Championship with the help of its arsenal of pitching weapons. Senior Morgan Perry (Bethany, Conn.) earned NFCA First Team All-America honors on Tuesday, becoming the first student-athlete in program history to accomplish that feat.
  • The two-time All-America selection and two-time D2CCA East Region Pitcher of the Year has logged an earned-run average of 0.63 on the season, the third-best metric in NCAA Division II. Logging a dominant 19-1 overall record, she has also tallied 18 complete games, 12 shutouts, two no-hitters and recorded the program's first-ever perfect game, doing so against Saint Michael's on Apr. 24.
  • On a national scale, Perry leads all NCAA Division II pitchers by averaging 12.2 strikeouts per seven innings, also ranking in the top-10 nationally with 215 strikeouts. Her mark of 3.81 hits allowed per seven innings is ranked fourth nationally.
  • The super senior needs just 11 strikeouts to match her own single-season program record of 226 strikeouts, set during the 2019 season.
  • Perry recently broke the program's all-time record for complete games with 78 to her credit (previous record - 76, Lori Cillo '94). In 11 of her last 13 games pitched, she has surrendered four or less hits to her opponents while only allowing seven total runs in that span. Earlier in the season, Perry broke the program's single-season shutouts record with 12, passing Lisa Petell '99 who achieved the feat in 1996. 
  • In her career, Perry is the owner of all-time program records in innings pitched (689), strikeouts (769), wins (86), appearances (119), games started (111), complete games (78), and shutouts (37).
  • McKenna Smith, a sophomore, has also posted eye-popping numbers within the circle with a 0.67 earned-run average that places her fourth nationally, just one spot behind Perry. Smith ranks 17th in the country by allowing just 4.47 hits per seven innings and ranks within the top-50 in the country in strikeouts per seven innings (8.0) and WHIP (0.95).
  • Senior Courtney Fisher (Taunton, Mass.) has also seen action in the circle for the Hawks in 2021, pitching in seven games and racking up a 4-2 record. Across 32-and-two-thirds innings, she has allowed just eight earned runs while striking out 21 batters. She also owns an extensive track record of pitching in the NCAA Championship, taking the ball three times for the Hawks in Salem, Va. during the 2018 campaign as a freshman.
  • On the offensive and defensive side of the ball, Bre Klaiber, a transfer shortstop to the Hilltop, earned D2CCA East Region Player of the Year alongside NE10 Northeast Division Player of the Year honors. Across 36 games at Saint Anselm this season, she has rapped 43 hits in 100 at-bats (.430), stroking six doubles, two triples and six home runs while driving in 28 runs.
  • Klaiber's .430 batting average is the second-best mark in single-season team history, trailing just the .447 average that Michelle Hughes '94 recorded in 1993 when she had 34 hits in 76 at-bats. Her .710 slugging percentage is second in team history and her on-base percentage of .533 is currently the highest single-season figure.
  • Klaiber has reached base in 23 consecutive games, the longest such streak of the 2021 season by a Hawks student-athlete. She had also hit safely in 10 consecutive games, one of three Hawks to do so in 2021, from Apr. 13 through Apr. 30, batting .633 with 19 hits in 30 at-bats.
  • In a 56-game career at Saint Anselm, Klaiber is batting .381 with 59 hits, 12 doubles, three triples and 10 home runs. She has also walked far more than she has struck out (34-to-13).
  • Klaiber was a two-year standout at LIU Post, winners of the 2019 NCAA Division II East Region Championship before the institution merged with LIU Brooklyn and ceased its athletics programs. She earned East Coast Conference (ECC) Rookie of the Year merits in 2018 and, most recently, competed at the NCAA Division II National Championship level in 2019 at MSU Denver wearing the green and gold of the Pioneers.
  • Defensively, Saint Anselm is ranked 49th in NCAA Division II with a .967 fielding percentage. The Hawks are bolstered on defense by two-time NE10 Defensive Player of the Year Kylie Fitzpatrick. Committing just one error in her Saint Anselm career at the keystone, the local product has earned First Team All-East Region honors from the NFCA, Second Team All-East Region honors from D2CCA and First Team All-Conference merits from the NE10.
  • Fitzpatrick has also chipped in on offense, ranking third in the NE10 in runs per game (0.86) and eighth with 0.3 doubles per game. Batting a career-high .345 as a sophomore, she has collected 40 hits with 11 doubles in just 37 games on the season. She has also driven in a career-high 19 runs for the Hawks.
  • Fitzpatrick is tied with Klaiber for the most multiple-hit games during the 2021 season - the duo has each logged two or more hits in nine games this season.
  • Gracie O'Hara, a freshman, is batting .320 in her first season on the Hilltop. She has logged 31 hits with 12 of those going for extra bases. She has six doubles and three home runs, tying for the team lead with three triples. She has hit safely in each of her last five games in the NCAA postseason.
  • Senior Lauren Washburn (Carmichael, Calif.) is batting .318 for the Hawks while Shannon Colson rounds out the Hawks cadre of .300+ hitters. Combined, Washburn and Colson have struck out just eight times, fanning four times apiece across the team's 37-game schedule to date.
  • Washburn's 30 runs driven in is the seventh-most in a single season and trails her career-high mark of 31 RBI set in the 2019 season. She has driven in two or more runs in 10 games, the only student-athlete to have double-digit games with multiple runs driven in.
  • Colson is the program's all-time record-holder in games played (197), at-bats (621) and stolen bases (89) while Thompson is second all-time with 187 games played. Colson ranks second all-time with 204 career hits while Thompson is sixth all-time on the all-time hits list with 164 to her credit.
  • Colson needs just one walk to set the all-time program record for base on balls and is four runs scored shy of setting the team's new all-time mark.
  • Head Coach Jill Gagnon is in the midst of her eighth season on the Hilltop where she is the winningest coach in team history. Since joining the Hawks prior to the 2014 season, she has racked up 213 wins against just 102 losses and a tie for a winning percentage of .676. In the past four seasons, Gagnon and the Hawks own a commanding 133-32-1 (.804) overall record.
  • Assistant Coach Amanda Bickford '18 is one of the most decorated student-athletes in program history, earning placement on the 2018 NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team after hitting safely in 10-of-11 games on the brightest stage. A First Team All-East Region performer, Bickford posted a .406 batting average, leading the Northeast-10 Conference in hits (88) and doubles (16) as a senior.
  • Bickford finished her career as the program's all-time hits leader with 237 across a four-year career. She also saw her career end ranked second in batting average (.389) and total bases (273), fourth in runs scored (97), fifth in on-base percentage (.414), fifth in games played (166) and 10th in doubles (30). Also a member of the Hawks volleyball team, Bickford saw action in 71 career matches, logging 247 kills while hitting at a .241 career percentage.

SAINT ANSELM QUICK HITS

  • Saint Anselm is batting .306 as a team in 2021, the sixth-best batting average in team history and the highest since the 1999 season where the Hawks hit .328. The program's slugging percentage of .452 to date is the second-highest in team history.
  • The Hawks have swiped just 22 bases in 2021, a stark contrast from the team's 2018 season where it finished as the NCAA Division II national runner-up. That season, Saint Anselm stole 89 of out of a possible 99 bases which was 26 more than the second-place season in team history (63, 2010 season).
  • The team's nation-leading earned-run average of 0.77 is the far-and-away program record, eclipsing the pandemic-shortened 2020 season where Saint Anselm pitchers logged a 1.11 ERA in just 132 innings of work.
  • The Hawks have won 32 games in 2021, tying for fourth all-time in program history. Saint Anselm has won 33 or more games in just three prior campaigns (33 - 1997, 41 - 2019, 44 - 2018).
  • Saint Anselm has not posted a fielding percentage lower than .967 in each of the past three seasons, the top three fielding campaigns in team history (.973 - 2019, .971 - 2020, .967 - 2021).
  • Against Adelphi in the NCAA postseason, Erin Thompson belted her first home run of the season and the sixth of her career. Out of those six long balls, three of them have come in postseason play and the bomb against Adelphi was the second to occur in the NCAA tournament. 
  • Thompson's first home run in the NCAA tournament came against Southern Arkansas in the National Championship on May 24, 2018 - the Hawks were without a hit through the game's first five innings, but Thompson's home run to right field tied the game at one in the bottom of the sixth inning. Saint Anselm went on to win its first game at the National Championship by a 2-1 margin in extra innings.

SCOUTING WEST CHESTER

  • An unranked program entering the NCAA postseason, West Chester has racked up a 34-14 overall record after logging 20 wins in 32 games across the team's regular-season PSAC schedule. The team opened its season with 10 wins in its first 12 games of the season.
  • One of the top offensive teams in the country, West Chester pitchers have combined to post an earned-run average over four (4.17) across the squad's 48 game schedule. The team leads all NCAA Division II programs with 512 hits and ranks second in total runs (366). Additionally, the program's 91 doubles ranks fourth in Division II and the team averages 7.62 runs per game, the sixth-best scoring rate in the nation.
  • The team's combined fielding percentage is .951, the 158th-ranked program in NCAA Division II.
  • Courtney Stump has driven in 58 runs on the year, ranking sixth in the nation. In total, West Chester has four student-athletes that have racked up 40+ runs driven in on the season. Stump and teammate Bri Garber are each driving in north of one run per game to pace the Golden Rams offense.
  • Three student-athletes have swiped 15 or more bases, including Madison Melvin's team-leading 28 thefts. Garber has 21 steals on the season with Grace Aguilar successfully stealing 15 bases on the year.
  • Trisha Kopinetz has 10 home runs on the year and her six sacrifice flies to date are the second-most in the entire country.
  • Jen Hanshaw leads NCAA Division II with 40 pitching appearances, seeing action in all but eight of her team's games in 2021. 
  • Head Coach Diane Lokey enters her 18th season at West Chester and owns 619 career coaching victories between her time with the Golden Rams and Elizabethtown College. She has helped her team to six 40+ win campaigns and has won four regional championships.

ALL-TIME vs. WEST CHESTER

  • Saint Anselm is 1-0 all-time against West Chester. The Hawks opened their historic 2018 national runner-up campaign with a 4-1 victory over the No. 16-ranked Golden Rams.
  • In that contest, then-sophomore Morgan Perry limited West Chester to one run over six innings. Maggie Murphy '20 delivered a three-run double for Saint Anselm and then-freshman Courtney Fisher had a successful collegiate debut, inducing three ground balls with the bases loaded late in the contest to record her first collegiate save.

ALL-TIME, NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP

  • The Hawks are in the midst of their third consecutive (and fifth-ever) NCAA tournament appearance (2002, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021).
  • In the NCAA postseason, the Hawks have totaled a record of 17-10, including seven straight wins in the 2018 NCAA run. Saint Anselm has hosted the past three straight regionals along with the two super regionals from 2018 and 2019.
  • In the Hawks first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the Hawks defeated C.W. Post, 7-1, in 2002.
  • The team's 2018 national runner-up finish was the first for any Saint Anselm varsity athletics program.
  • West Chester is making its 10th NCAA postseason appearance and owns an all-time record of 29-21.
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