LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Senior Morgan Perry (Bethany, Conn.) of the nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College softball team received the nation's highest pitching honor on Thursday, picking up Schutt Sports/National Fastpitch Coaches' Association Division II Pitcher of the Year plaudits.
The most decorated pitcher in Saint Anselm softball history, Perry won D2CCA Ron Lenz National Pitcher of the Year honors last week and was a two-time D2CCA East Region Pitcher of the Year (2019, 2021). Additionally, she collected NFCA First Team All-America honors on May 25 and was a First Team All-Region selection by the same organization.
Within the Northeast-10 Conference, Perry has won the league's Pitcher of the Year honor twice (2019, 2021) and helped Saint Anselm win its third consecutive Northeast Division Regular Season Championship. The Hawks have also won the program's first two Northeast-10 Conference postseason titles with her assistance (2019, 2021). In the last four seasons, the Hawks own a 134-34-1 (.796) overall record.
In 2021, Perry posted a 1.01 earned-run average across 138.2 innings of work, winning 20 of her 23 starts for Saint Anselm. Striking out 222 batters on the season, she fired 12 shutouts, registered two no-hitters and tallied the program's first-ever perfect game. Her 11.2 strikeouts per seven innings rate is third among NCAA Division II pitchers.
She began the season with 19 wins in 19 starts, logging an 0.48 earned-run average and 209 strikeouts in her first 116 innings pitched. In her first five starts alone, she pitched 33 innings and allowed no earned runs, striking out 73 batters – she threw a no-hitter in her team's season debut, her first start in 378 days.
In the NE10 Tournament, Perry yielded just three runs and struck out 27 batters to lift Saint Anselm to its second NE10 postseason championship on May 14. Due to her effort in that tournament, Perry was named to the All-Tournament Team shortly after earning the second NE10 Northeast Division Pitcher of the Year award in her career.
During the NCAA Division II East Region Championship, Perry pitched three games and struck out 25 batters in 19 innings, winning two games and conceding only four runs in total. She struck out 13 batters against No. 22 Georgian Court on May 21, just one day after fanning six batters versus Adelphi, which set up the Hawks to win the team's second regional championship on May 22.
Allowing three earned runs or more on just three occasions, including once to the eventual NCAA Division II National Champions from West Texas A&M last week, Perry limited her opposition to two or less runs in 20 starts. In total, she registered 12 starts with 10 or more strikeouts, including a season-high 18 against Saint Michael's on Apr. 23.
Firing three complete games in the East Region Championship, Perry broke the program's all-time record for shutouts (76 – Lori Cillo '94), establishing a new career record at season's end with 80 shutouts. Her 12 shutouts in 2021 is a single-season record, as is her .164 batting average against in 2021.
She capped the season ranked within the top-10 nationally in several statistics, including hits allowed per seven innings (4.04 – sixth), strikeouts (222 – sixth), earned-run average (1.01 – ninth), WHIP (0.85 – ninth), and complete games (20 – 10th).
Off the field, Perry was a key part of the College's athletics COVID-19 response. A Nursing major on the Hilltop, she was one of a select group of student-athletes hired to provide assistance with the student-athlete NCAA surveillance testing program. Regularly waking up at six in the morning for 7 a.m. testing, Perry helped to ensure the safety of student-athletes across the College's 17 varsity sports during the spring semester.
Perry made her collegiate debut for the Hawks in the 2017 season, securing her first collegiate victory against Southern New Hampshire on Apr. 13. The very next season in 2018, Perry propelled the Hawks to the NCAA Division II East Region Championship and won 26 games – Saint Anselm finished as the National Runner-Up that year, the first varsity program at the College to accomplish that feat.
Across 35 games as a sophomore, Perry was a three-time Pitcher of the Week honoree from the Northeast-10 and secured placement on the NCAA All-Championship Team, pitching to a 1.68 earned-run average across five games on the game's brightest stage. Allowing just eight earned runs in those contests, she was the winning pitcher in her squad's first-ever victory at the National Championship, pitching nine strong innings against No. 8 Southern Arkansas on May 24, 2018.
In 2019, Perry guided Saint Anselm to the East Region Championship series against LIU Post, but the Hawks were defeated in extra innings in the third game of the Super Regional. That season, Perry set the team's single-season records in innings pitched (206.2) and strikeouts (226), tying her own team record with 26 pitching victories. She was also the Most Outstanding Player of the NE10 Championship and went on to allow just one earned run across 21 innings at the East 1 Regional hosted on campus.
In the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, the Hawks logged a 16-4 overall record as her team was victorious in each of her 10 appearances. She was a perfect 10-0 in the circle, striking out 94 batters in just 67 innings. She capped her season with the nation's fourth-best earned-run average (0.62) and was the NE10 leader in ERA, wins and strikeouts.
Perry wraps up an illustrious career with program records in career pitching victories (87), appearances (122), starts (114), complete games (80), shutouts (37), innings pitched (704.2) and strikeouts (776).
