The St. Thomas Aquinas College Softball team's Cinderella season continues Wednesday when they take the field for its first NCAA postseason game in 13 years.
The third-seeded Spartans, picked to finish last in the East Coast Conference pre-season coaches poll, will travel to second-seeded University of Bridgeport on Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the first-round of the ECC's double-elimination format playoff tournament. Top-seeded LIU Post will host fourth-seeded NYIT in Wednesday's other first-round game with the tournament continuing Friday and Saturday at LIU Post in Brookville, N.Y. The winner will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA East Regional scheduled May 9-11.
STAC marches into the playoffs after tying the college's 35-year record for wins (24-19 overall, 14-10 ECC) and with the No. 9 rank in the East poll, the first rating in college history. It is STAC's first winning season since 1997.
"This has been a historic season for our program for so many reasons and I'm proud of the effort that the players have invested in it,' said Head Coach Kristen Sullivan. "We beat several quality teams on our Florida trip and we continued to improve as the season progressed. Our pitching and defense has been the cornerstone of the team's success."
Sullivan is one of the college's most accomplished pitchers ever, so it is no surprise that this year's team has an outstanding staff. Senior Colleen Borum (Mountain Top, Pa.) has logged her best collegiate season and won seven straight starts at one point during the campaign. She registered important wins over LIU Post, Caldwell and Le Moyne along with a sterling one-hitter against Molloy. She finished the regular season with an impressive 2.98 earned run average.
Junior transfer Adrianna Dilal (Rochester, N.Y.) has quickly established herself in the program. She threw the program's first no-hitter since 2007 against Molloy College and struck out 13 batters in a win over Queens College. She is among the conference leaders in wins, strikeouts and earned run average.
Behind Borum and Dilal has been an exceptional defensive unit. Shortstop Ashley Landolina (Tolland, Ct.), third baseman Kelcy McGeehan (Bayville, N.J.), first baseman Taylor Sullivan (Suffern, N.Y.) and outfielders Melissa Sadler (Milton, N.Y.), Briana Keaveney (New City, N.Y.) and Alyssa Chelak (Pougquag, N.Y.) have all sparkled on a consistent basis.
Offensively, the Spartans have used a blend of timely hitting, power and Sullivan's trademark aggressive style that puts pressure on opposing defenses with bunts and steals. The Spartans were second in team steals in ECC play with Landolina and Keaveney both breaking the college record for single-season stolen bases with 15.
Landolina has been STAC's leading hitter with team-leading totals in homers (seven), batting average (.380), hits (49), RBI (33) and on-base percentage (.467). Keaveney leads the team in runs and triples. McGeehan, Sadler, Caitlyn Francoeur (East Bridgewater, Mass.) and Amanda Leone (Milford, Ct.) have provided important offensive contributions.
The Spartans have won three of their four regular-season meetings with Bridgeport. Amanda Staheli is the team's top hurler with a 16-5 record and a 2.19 ERA. Shortstop and leadoff hitter Allison Luzzi is one of the ECC's top players and finished the regular season with a .387 batting average. Samantha Sabor and Elyssa Marmolejo have also enjoyed big offensive campaigns.
"The ECC playoffs are always very exciting and our players can't wait to compete for the conference championship," said Sullivan. "The key for our team is to apply the same formula of strong pitching, solid defense and timely hitting that has carried us all season."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
All games during the championship will be broadcast live on the ECC Network website and the ECC Network app on Apple and Android mobile devices and on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Roku streaming devices. To read Twitter updates throughout the tournament, follow @ECCSports. To see highlights during the games on Friday and Saturday, follow @ECCSportsNet on Twitter. Tournament recaps, live stats, box scores and all other pertinent tournament information will also be available at the championship central web page.
2019 East Coast Conference Softball Championship
Wednesday, May 2 at highest seeds
Game One: No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas at. No. 2 Bridgeport - 3:00 p.m.
Game Two: No. 4 NYIT vs. No. 1 LIU Post - 3:00 p.m.
Friday, May 3 at LIU Post
Game Three: Game One winner vs. Game Two winner - 10:00 a.m.
Game Four: Game One loser vs. Game Two loser - 12:30 p.m.
Game Five: Game Three loser vs. Game Four winner - 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 4 at LIU Post
Game Six: Game Three winner vs. Game Five winner -12:00 p.m.
Game Seven: if necessary - 30 minutes after completion of Game Six