For spring sports players here at Le Moyne, the weather is perhaps their greatest enemy. The softball players would have to agree. Through a season filled with plenty of cancellations, rain-outs and make up games, the term double header became a common word in their vocabulary to describe their games.
Their season was also filled with outstanding performances by both individuals and as a team in general, a stretch where they won eight straight games against conference opponents, and a season that consisted of playing 26 games in 26 days. The softball team was given a task to accomplish the season, where each day they had a game, they were prepared to play, or to get rained out only to play a doubleheader some other day. Though this season was a crazy one, the softball team managed to give it their all in every game to accomplish a common goal, to go out and play hard in an effort to win each and every game on route to a national title. For the softball team, their chase were the prize was interrupted by Pace University in the first round of the NE-10 Conference Tournament by a score of 7-5.
The game started with Le Moyne and Pace trading runs in the first and second innings followed by a scoreless third leaving the game tied at two apiece going into the fourth. Le Moyne tallied a run in the top half of the inning, but Pace countered with what was perhaps the turning point in the game as they were able to put up four runs in their half of the inning to take a 6-3 lead after four. A scoreless fifth followed, Pace added a run in the sixth to take a 7-3 lead heading into the final inning. Le moyne would not go down without a fight as they tallied two runs to cut the deficit to two runs. Pace proved they could hold off the Dolphins to win the game. It is now is up to the NCAA to see if Le Moyne can continue to play in the NCAA tournament, if not the Le Moyne season that had it’s ups and downs but showed a team that was a competitive team’s season to an end.
In the midst of this roller coaster season for the Dolphins, there were some individuals that stood out to help contribute to the efforts of the team. Senior Sarah Harrison will graduate as the all time wins leader in Le Moyne softball history as she has tallied 75 wins in her time at Le Moyne. Along with that record, Sarah received her third straight all conference honors as she was named to the NE-10 Conference all second team.
Fellow Dolphins Sarah Tram, Vanessa Utley, Kristie Capuano, and Sabrina Riley were named to the all conference third team for their hard work and efforts put into this season. Riley and fellow freshman Courtney Case were named to the all conference rookie team.
Overall the Dolphins finished the season with an overall record of 24-17, with a conference record of 14-8. these numbers were a bit of an improvement over last season when they finished 21-21 overall, with a 15-10 conference record. The Dolphins will lose six seniors off this year’s team to graduation including all conference performers Harrison, Tram and Utley but will return plenty of regulars from this year’s team including some recruits that will perhaps play a key role on the team as some freshman did this year.
Only time will tell the faith for the Le Moyne Dolphins, a fate that shows them continuing on in the NCAA tournament, or a fate that ends their season and leave them wanting to come back next year to find continuing success.
