Softball | 5/16/2024 11:57:00 AM
PITTSFORD, NY – The St. John Fisher University softball team, 34-5 on the season, will open the NCAA Tournament on the campus of Tufts University this week with a game against a familiar foe: the University of Rochester. Also in the regional are the host Jumbos and Western New England. The double-elimination regional begins on Thursday, May 16.
How They Got Here
After finishing unbeaten in conference play, the Cardinals hosted the Empire 8 Softball Tournament last weekend. Despite losing to Utica in their second game of the tournament, the Cardinals were able to recover and win out, beating Utica twice on Saturday to clinch the program's second straight conference title and the ninth conference crown overall. The victory ensured an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament.
Tournament Format
The NCAA tournament's regional round is a double-elimination format: the winners of the opening games will play each other, as will the losers of the opening games. The process continues until only one team remains without two losses. This is the same format used in the Empire 8 tournament.
The teams that advance out of regionals go into super-regionals, where they'll play a best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to the Division III Women's College World Series. Like the opening round, the WCWS is a double-elimination format, with the last two teams standing then playing a best-of-three series to determine the national champion.
NCAA History
The softball team has been one of the most successful programs at Fisher when it comes to NCAA success, making the tournament 12 times before this season. They've twice reached the Women's College World Series, including a national runner-up finish in 2017. Last year, the Cardinals were eliminated in the Ashland regionals.
Know Your Foe
The University of Rochester is, of course, a familiar foe to the Cardinals. The two teams play each other practically every season. Fisher is 19-24 against the Yellowjackets since 2006, including losing two games this season. It's rare that the NCAA places regular season opponents into opening round games with each other, but not unheard of.
The Yellowjackets enter the tournament with a 30-7 record and as champions of the Liberty League. Offensively, they're led by Riley Laygo. In 37 games this season, the freshman has hit .476 with a 1.419 OPS and 12 home runs. She's also a threat on the basepaths, stealing a team-high 13 bags. In the circle, Molly Broccolo and Lauren Keys combined to go 27-5, including both wins against the Cardinals in March.
Fun Fact: Every team at U of R is Division III except for their squash team, which is a Division I program.
Other Foes To Know
Who else the Cardinals face during the weekend will depend on the results of games, but the other two possible opponents are known: Tufts and Western New England University.
Tufts hosts this regional competition and enters it with a 32-7 record. Although they fell to Trinity (CT) in the semifinals of the NESCAC tournament, they still earned an at-large bid to the tournament on their strength of schedule and resume. The Jumbos are led offensively by Kaitlyn Perucci, who is tops on the team in batting average (.434), OPS (1.134), and RBI (38). Their ace in the circle is Sophia DiCocco, who is eighth in the country with a 0.83 ERA. Not far behind DiCocco is Sky Johnson, who holds a 1.08 ERA. Tufts overall has the fourth-lowest ERA in the country: 1.22. The Jumbos are a three-time national champion in softball, winning three straight from 2013 through 2015. Fun fact: Tufts is called the Jumbos in honor of Jumbo the circus elephant- P.T. Barnum was an early benefactor of the school.
The Western New England University Golden Bears enter the tournament with a 27-13 record and the Commonwealth Coast Conference crown. Their top player is likely their ace pitcher, Evelyn Picone. The sophomore holds the fifth-lowest ERA in the country (0.76). At the plate, Kailey Carrano leads the team with 12 home runs and a 1.116 OPS. Fun fact: Western New England was originally a division of Northeastern University.
Donlin and Ormond
Fisher athletes won both Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in the Empire 8 this season.
Junior outfielder Maddie Donlin won Player of the Year after a regular season where she finished third in the conference in batting average (.436), fifth in on-base-percentage (.496), sixth in hits (44), and ninth in runs scored (29) while also finishing in the top 20 in most other offensive categories. Against conference opponents, she was even better, hitting .478 and reaching base at a .574 clip. The Vestal native was also steady in the field, making only one error all season. It was the first time a Cardinal had won Player of the Year since Allie Klonowski shared the award in 2022, and the first time a Fisher player was the lone winner of the award since Emily Trotman won in 2021.
Junior Cassidy Ormond won Pitcher of the Year after dominating competition this season, going 15-2 with a 1.22 ERA (best in the conference), .185 opposing batting average (best in the conference) and 101 strikeouts (fourth-best in conference) over 86.1 innings pitched. She was even better against conference opponents, finishing the conference regular season schedule with a minuscule 0.62 ERA and a .179 opposing batting average. She threw two run-rule shortened no-hitters this season: a perfect game against RIT on March 27 and a "traditional" no-hitter against Houghton on April 26. She came close to no-hitters on other occasions, as well, coming just two outs away from one against Fredonia on April 16. The Cicero native won the Empire 8 Pitcher of the Week award four times this season, including three times in a row in April.
SuperMcManus
The top freshman on Fisher this season was outfielder Emily McManus. She had a historic rookie season for the Cardinals, leading the team and the entire Empire 8 with 10 home runs during the regular season- tied for the sixth-most in a single season in program history. That was good enough to tie for sixth-most in a single season in program history. She hit two more during the Empire 8 conference tournament to get her total to 12- tied for third-most in a year. The Gates-Chili graduate led the Empire 8 in the regular season slugging (.832) and OPS (1.349), and landed third in runs scored (35), walks (21), and RBI (35). She was fourth in on-base-percentage (.517) and placed seventh in batting average (.411), as well.
ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE
The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit
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