Freshman Tory Healy needs one RBI this weekend to break the single-season record. |
NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. – The Niagara University softball team (12-27, 2-11) plays its final series of the season Saturday when it travels to Lawrenceville, N.J., to take on Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference foe Rider University (13-29, 3-9) in a noon doubleheader.
The Purple Eagles are currently in eighth place in the MAAC standings, one game behind the Broncs. Niagara is also two games back of sixth place Siena College, which travels to Saint Peter’s and Manhattan this weekend.
With two games to play, MAAC freshman of the year candidate Tory Healy (Las Vegas, Nev.) is on the brink of another Niagara single-season record. The second baseman is currently tied with 2004 graduate Cheryl Julicher for most RBI in a season. Julicher plated 33 RBI in her only season as a Purple Eagle. Healy already has the single-season record for home runs (8) and is fifth in hits (42).
Healy enters Saturday’s series leading Niagara in hitting (.378), hits, doubles (8), home runs, RBI, total bases (76) and slugging percentage (.685).
Junior Shannon Mongalise (Bethel Park, Pa.) is second in hitting (.326) and has 29 hits, five doubles, two home runs and 15 RBI. Senior Linzi Scarfone (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Niagara Falls) and sophomore Lisa Baker (West Seneca, N.Y./West Seneca West) are both hitting .299. Scarfone leads the team in triples (3) and has 23 hits, four doubles and nine RBI. Baker has a team-leading 127 at bats and 22 runs. The lead-off hitter also has four doubles, a home run and six RBI.
On the mound, are freshmen Tiffany McCrory (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Brooke Viola (Los Alamitos, Calif.). McCrory is 6-12 with a 3.88 ERA in 26 appearances, 17 starts and 12 complete games. The right-hander has a team-best 82 strikeouts which ranks tied for third on the Niagara single-season list.
Viola has a 4.77 ERA and 6-10 record in 21 appearances, 17 starts and seven complete games. She has 45 strikeouts in 91 innings of work.
Rider has three of its last five games and is 2-2 in its last two MAAC series. In their last outing, the Broncs were shutout in a doubleheader at Princeton on Thursday.
Junior Jennifer Cullen leads the team in hitting (.379), hits (44) and stolen bases (10 for 12). Classmate Jill Carrabus is hitting .323 with 41 hits, four homers and 23 RBI.
On the pitch, junior Heather Beintema has a 4.40 ERA and 8-15 record in 25 appearances, 24 starts and 16 complete games. She also has a squad-best 112 strikeouts. Freshman Jessica Holland has a 4.96 ERA and 3-6 record in 25 appearances, nine starts and six complete games.
In last year’s doubleheader on Monteagle Ridge, the Purple Eagles lost both games, 14-0 and 7-5, to Rider.
