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Circle huddle, softball

PREVIEW: Softball to meet No. 22 Adelphi in NE10 Championship

5/6/2022 4:35:00 PM

MANCHESTER, N.H. – For the third consecutive season, Saint Anselm College and Adelphi University will meet to decide the winner of the Northeast-10 Conference Softball Championship.

SAINT ANSELM COLLEGE HAWKS (28-14, 20-6 NE10)
Roster | Schedule & Results | Statistics | News

No. 22 ADELPHI UNIVERSITY PANTHERS (40-11, 22-4 NE10)
Roster | Schedule & Results | Statistics | News

No. 2 seed Saint Anselm (28-14) will play top-seeded Adelphi (40-11) on Saturday, May 7 at 12 p.m Sunday, May 8 at 11 a.m. after inclement weather forced the postponement of Saturday's 12 p.m. game. The Hawks came away with a thrilling come-from-behind win over Assumption in the NE10 Semifinals on Friday while the Panthers dispatched Southern New Hampshire, 2-0, in their own semifinals tilt.

Saint Anselm won its first NE10 postseason title in 2019, edging the Panthers in a 10-inning thriller on the Hilltop. Most recently, in 2021, the Hawks posted back-to-back victories in a best-of-three series versus the Panthers at Saint Anselm, claiming the team's second consecutive championship.

Adelphi, ranked No. 22 in the country, has made the NE10 title game in each of the last four seasons, winning back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018. The Panthers claimed the NE10 Regular Season Championship this year, compiling a 22-4 record versus the NE10.

The Panthers are presently nationally-ranked while the Hawks opened the season ranked as high as No. 8 in the country, according to the National Fastpitch Coaches' Association. Saint Anselm is the reigning NCAA Division II East Region Champion.

SCOUTING SAINT ANSELM

  • Staring at a 4-0 deficit in the team's first Northeast-10 Conference postseason game, Saint Anselm scored five unanswered runs to claim a 5-4 victory over Assumption on Friday in the NE10 semifinals. The game was played at Pace University instead of Adelphi, due to the threat of inclement weather.
  • Assumption (20-26) took advantage of four unearned runs in the top of the second before the Hawks settled in to score five runs in the next three half-innings to log their third win of 2022 over the Greyhounds. In total, the Hawks drew seven walks in the victory, matching a season-high total.
  • With the score tied at four and runners at second and third, sophomore Gracie O'Hara (Shrewsbury, Mass.) hit a ball on the ground that was corralled and thrown home. Junior Kylie Fitzpatrick (Danville, N.H.) was initially ruled out at the plate, but after a conference between the umpires, the out call was reversed and the go-ahead run was awarded to Saint Anselm.
  • Saint Anselm has won eight of its last nine games, finishing the regular season of NE10 play with a 20-6 record versus league opponents. The Hawks have now won 20 or more conference games in four of the last full seasons of play.
  • Saint Anselm leads the NE10 with 114 walks drawn this season on offense while ranking second in the league with a .347 on-base percentage. Hawks batters have been hit by 26 pitches this season, trailing only Franklin Pierce (34) for the league-lead in that metric.
  • Sophomore Haile Hicks (Jefferson, N.H.), who had just two career innings of work to her credit entering the year, earned First Team All-Conference honors for Saint Anselm, producing a 21-3 record in the circle alongside a 1.16 earned-run average. She is tied for the NE10 lead in pitching victories (21) and is second in earned-run average (1.16) while throwing the fourth-most strikeouts (153).
  • Hicks has racked up 10 shutouts on the season, the second-most in a single campaign for a Hawks student-athlete. Limiting opponents to just a .182 batting average (second-lowest in team history for a single season), Hicks is now one of just two pitchers (Morgan Perry '21) to record at least 21 wins in a single season for the Hawks.
  • Hicks needs just two shutouts to match Perry's team record 12 shutouts, all logged during the 2021 campaign that saw Saint Anselm return to the National Championship for the second time in three years.
  • Fitzpatrick, senior Bre Klaiber (Ironton, Ohio) and classmate Bailey Cain (Wellington, Fla.) were named to the Second Team All-Conference for the Hawks. Fitzpatrick is a two-time NE10 Defensive Player of the Year selection while Klaiber was the Northeast Division's Player of the Year in 2021.
  • Cain is the team's leader in batting average, hitting .346 with 27 runs batted in this season. She established a new team single-season record in walks (28) on the way to a team – Cain is tied for the NE10 lead with a .493 on-base percentage in 42 games – she is the only student-athlete to have started in each of her team's games this season.
  • Only three Saint Anselm student-athletes have finished the season with an on-base percentage equal to or greater than .500 – Klaiber (.523) in 2021 and Rachel Belliveau '99 (.504) in 1996.
  • O'Hara has collected Third Team honors from the NE10 for the second consecutive season, hitting .336 with 42 hits, seven doubles, one triple and three home runs for Saint Anselm. Leading the team with 12 multiple-hit games, O'Hara also produced the team's longest hitting streak of the season, batting .536 (15-for-28) from Apr. 12 through Apr. 23.
  • Junior Kate Irwin (Milford, Mass.) not only drove in a career-high three runs on Friday against Assumption, but she has swiped 16-of-17 bases, good for a .941 theft percentage to rank fourth in single-season team history – her first "caught stealing" of the season came against Southern Connecticut State in the final regular-season doubleheader.
  • Irwin has an active five-game hitting streak, logging at least one hit in each game since a 1-for-4 performance against Assumption on Apr. 24. She is batting .400 in that span with six hits in 15 at-bats, driving in four runs.
  • Junior Kylee Royer (Blackshear, Ga.) has reached base in 10 consecutive games, an active team-leading streak. She has logged a hit in eight of those 10 games, drawing a walk alongside an 0-for-2 performance at Southern Connecticut State in the season finale. She walked once in the NE10 semifinals against Assumption.

SCOUTING ADELPHI

  • The Panthers boast the region's most impressive one-two punch in the circle with Claire Fon and Lauren Hibbs – the duo has combined for 40 victories in the circle. In total, three Adelphi pitchers have produced the fourth-best team earned-run average in the country (1.41).
  • Piloted by NE10 Coach of the Year Carla Campagna, Adelphi has pitched 22 shutouts this season, tying with Indianapolis for the most in NCAA Division II. The team's 8.24 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 0.82 WHIP (walks-hits-innings pitched) is also leading all pitching staffs in the country.
  • Fon, the NE10 Pitcher of the Year, is the conference's leader with an 0.85 earned-run average and came into Friday's NE10 semifinals game against Southern New Hampshire with the sixth-finest ERA in the nation.
  • Hibbs' 15.81 strkeout-to-walk ratio leads the nation. She ranks second with 11.6 strikeouts per seven innings and ninth in the nation with 253 strikeouts to date.
  • While pitching can be considered the team's strength, the Adelphi offense ranks second in the NE10 in batting average (.296), doubles per game (1.58), scoring (480 runs), slugging percentage (.418), stolen bases per game (1.24), sacrifice flies (17), stolen bases (62), triples (19) and triples per game (0.38).
  • Angela Lignelli was named the NE10 Defensive Player of the Year for the Panthers, mentoring arguably the best pitching staff in the region from behind the plate. She allowed just four steals in NE10 play, the lowest mark in the NE10 and led the league in total chances (220) and putouts (209).
  • Sophia Cicchetti and Ziara Shreter have each recorded seven triples on the season, tying for the NE10 lead. Courtney Wengryn is the team's leading hitter at .376, producing 14 doubles and five home runs with 36 runs batted in.
  • Faith Camilleri has smacked seven home runs, driving in 35 on the season. She has also racked up 10 doubles, trailing Alexa Sacripante (18) and Wengryn (14).

LAST TIME OUT vs. ADELPHI (Mar. 26, 2022)

  • In the Northeast-10 Conference opener for both teams, Saint Anselm tripped up by Adelphi University in back-to-back one-run contests (1-0, 2-1) played at the South Athletic Fields.
  • The Hawks offense generated 14 hits on the day and limited Adelphi to just eight, but the Hawks left 18 total runners on base across the two games and struck out 14 times. Saint Anselm logged its lone run of the afternoon on a ball four wild pitch in game two.
  • In the circle, the tandem of Hicks and freshman Sophia DiPippo (Cranston, R.I.) performed admirably, limiting Adelphi to just three combined earned runs across 14 innings. Both drew the loss. Freshman Ava Caputo (Waterford, N.Y.) led the way with four hits in seven at-bats for the Hawks.

ALL-TIME, NE10 POSTSEASON

  • The Hawks are 23-21 all time in the NE10 playoffs and have won eight games in a row, including the last two NE10 championship titles given out by the conference in 2019 and 2021. Both of those championships were claimed over Adelphi.
  • The last loss in the NE10 playoffs for Saint Anselm was a 2-0 defeat against Pace on May 4, 2018 on the campus of Adelphi – the Hawks went onto finish as the national runner-up in NCAA Division II that season.
  • Adelphi is making its 12th appearance in the NE10 postseason, improving to 19-10 overall with a victory against Southern New Hampshire on Friday morning. The team has won three NE10 championships in a relatively limited time in the league, joining as a full member in 2010.

ALL-TIME vs. ADELPHI

  • The Panthers hold the lead in the all-time series, 11-10-1, after winning both games against Saint Anselm earlier this season.
  • Adelphi and Saint Anselm have met four times in NE10 and NCAA postseason play, with the Hawks winning all four times.
  • In games played in Garden City, N.Y., the Hawks are 3-5 all-time.
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