After an abbreviated six-week regular season and a single-elimination league tournament in 2021, the Liberty League softball teams are eager to get the 2022 season underway.
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University of Rochester on the heels of winning its first conference title since 2016 and advancing to the Championship Round of the NCAA tournament in 2021 have been tabbed the top team in the league this season via a vote of the league’s head coaches. The Yellowjackets headline the Liberty League Softball preseason poll, with six first-place votes (coaches cannot vote for their own teams) and 48 points. Ithaca College was selected to finish second with a first-place vote and 40 points. Clarkson University, picked to finish third, were not far behind the Bombers with 37 total points and a first-place vote. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) rounds out the league’s top-four teams with 35 points. The Engineers are followed by Skidmore College (25 points), Union College (17 points), St. Lawrence University (15 points) and Rochester Institute of Technology (7 points).
Rochester will open the 2022 season ranked at No. 9 in the Division III National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) preseason poll. In 2021, the Yellowjackets finished the year with a 35-10 overall record (22-3 Liberty League) and the team made its second appearance in the NCAA finals. Despite the graduation of six, Rochester is poised to continue its recent run of success a core group of players back from the 2021 squad. From the circle, starting pitcher Emily Sharlach (2021 Liberty League Rookie of the Year) will lead the team. She made 24 appearances last year, including 16 starts with a 1.47 earned run average. She tossed 12 complete games and recorded six shutouts. Rochester also welcomes back 2021 Liberty League Co-Player of the Year Hannah Keiper, one of the team’s top producers at the plate. She hit .403 on the year and belted a league-high 12 home runs to go along with 52 hits and 40 runs batted in. Allison Beckwith (.324; All-Liberty League First Team) and Hunter Gilbreath (.248) also return. In 71 at-bats, Beckwith recorded 23 hits, including five doubles and seven home runs. She also scored 18 runs and drove in 22. Gilbreath played and started in 44 of the team’s 45 games last season. She had seven doubles and three home runs as well as 26 hits and 19 runs batted in. From behind the plate, she boasted a .976 fielding percentage with 182 putouts and 21 assists.
Ithaca finished the 2021 campaign with a 25-8 overall record and a 19-4 mark against league opponents. The Bombers reached the Liberty League championship game for the third straight season before falling to Rochester. They will look to make a run at the 2022 title with 13 returning players from last year. Julia Loffredo headlines this year’s team after earning All-Liberty League First Team honors in 2021. A starter in all 33 games for the Bombers, she posted a team-best 34 runs batted in and was third on the team in hits (32), 13 of which were for extra bases (4 doubles, 2 triples, 7 home runs). Allison Dell’Orto, an All-Liberty League Second Team selection, will also be one of Ithaca’s key hitters after pacing the team in batting average (.351) last season. She scored 29 runs and produced 20 runs batted in. Riley Piromalli, also an All-Liberty League Second Team honoree, was the team’s ace last year going 13-1 from the circle with a 2.14 earned run average. In 95.0 innings of work, she made 17 appearances (13 starts) and struck out 75.
After narrowly missing the Liberty League postseason in 2021 and the graduation of only one,
Clarkson (18-14, 10-10 Liberty League) is ready to make some noise in the standings this season. The Golden Knights welcome back 2021 Liberty League Pitcher of the Year Olivia Zoeller and 2021 Liberty League Co-Player of the Year Kayla Robert. Zoeller dominated the league last season as she paced the conference in earned run average (0.96), strikeouts (184) and opponents’ batting average (.160). In 109.1 innings, she went 14-4 in 16 starts. She finished the year fourth in Division III in strikeouts per seven innings (11.8) as well as, ninth in earned run average, 11th in total strikeouts, 11th in hits allowed per seven innings (3.71), and 23rd in strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.36). Robert was tops in the league in hitting with a .495 batting average and .549 on-base percentage. She totaled 74 bases on the season and recorded 50 hits (8 doubles, 2 triples, 4 home runs). She also posted the longest hitting streak in program history for Clarkson as she opened the 2021 campaign with hits in the team’s first 21 games (28 straight games dating back to the shortened 2020 season), tying for the 15th-longest in NCAA Division III history. Maddie Brinke, an All-Liberty League Second Team selection also returns. In 28 games, she scored 12 times and drove in 19 runs on 35 hits, which included seven extra-base hits (4 doubles, 3 home runs).
Despite a schedule that was limited to the final three weeks of the 2021 season,
RPI made the best of things squeezing in 14 games and posting a 10-4 record. The Engineers reached the Liberty League postseason for the 11th straight year as the third seed. A pair of All-Liberty League Second Team honorees headline the 2022 squad in Erin Askins and Cat Worthington. Askins was the team’s top run producer, hitting at a .457 clip with seven doubles, two triples and three home runs. She paced the team in runs scored (17) and runs batted in (16). Worthington boasted a team-high .462 batting average with 18 hits in 39 at-bats. She had a six-game hitting streak during the season and finished with nine extra-base hits on five doubles, two triples, two home runs, nine runs scored and 13 runs batted in. Alexis Cooke will lead the team from the pitching circle after a 5-2 mark in 2021. In 10 appearances, she made nine starts, allowing 40 hits and striking out 39. She finished the season with a 1.38 earned run average, good for ninth among league leaders.
Skidmore wrapped up last season with an 11-9 overall record and a 11-8 mark in league play. The Thoroughbreds earned a trip to the Liberty League tournament for the first time since 2017 and they will be fully loaded heading into 2022 with the graduation of only one from the 2021 roster. Katie Anderson returns to the lineup after pacing the team with her .387 batting average. She was recognized with All-Liberty League First Team honors and was tops on the team in hits (24) as well as doubles (7). Kaitlyn Judd (All-Liberty League Second Team) is also back, she boasted a team-best .646 slugging percentage. She hit .375 with four doubles and a team-high three home runs to go along with 14 runs batted in. Hannah Davis (.263) and Megan White (.253) will also be key contributors to the batting order. Davis is a dual threat for Skidmore, from the plate, she produced 10 hits and seven runs in 14 games and as a pitcher she went 2-2 in eight appearances while striking out 22 in 36.0 innings.
A year of experience should translate well on the field for
Union as the Dutchwomen opened last season with ten players in their first year of collegiate softball. Karson Saunders and Anna Zdunczyk headline the team’s returning players as the duo both had breakout rookie seasons in 2021. Saunders earned All-Liberty League Second Team honors after starting all 28 games last season. She paced the team with a .347 batting average to go along with a team-high 19 runs batted in, .390 on-base percentage and .520 slugging percentage. Zdunczyk went 20-for-59 from the plate for a .339 batting average, good for second on the team. She tied for the team lead in runs scored (13). Olivia Valery also returns after hitting .280 last season and tying for a team-high 26 hits, including a team-best eight doubles, one triple and one home run to go along with 10 runs and 15 runs batted in.
For the first time since the spring of 2013,
St. Lawrence welcomes a new head coach with Rosie Phillips joining the Saints in July. Phillips is no stranger to New York or Division III softball after playing four years at SUNY Cortland. She will look to a core group of returning players to lead this year’s team. Meredith Rose (All-Liberty League Honorable Mention) highlights the 2022 returnees after playing in 26 of 29 games last season. She was second on the team with a .324 batting average and tied for the team lead in runs scored with 14. Gabby Slater is back after splitting time between the infield and the pitching circle. She made 22 appearances as a pitcher, including 11 starts. She finished the year with a 3-9 record, a 5.91 earned run average and 49 strikeouts. From the plate, she carried a .232 batting average, recorded 13 hits and drove in eight runs. Tori Rotundo and Lauryn Best are also back after playing in more than 25 games for St. Lawrence last season.
RIT will be a young squad this season with 10 first-year players. It could be a rebuilding year for the Tigers, however four returning upperclassmen will bring a steadying presence to the lineup. Catcher Alexis Smith, an All-Liberty League Honorable Mention selection headlines the 2022 team. She played in all 32 games last year, finished second in batting average (.376) and tied for the team lead in hits (32). She was also third in doubles (6) and fourth in runs batted in (9). Hannah Trumble is also back and one of the team’s three seniors; she hit .278 in 29 games and recorded 25 hits in 2021 to go along with nine runs and nine runs batted in. Teammates Haley Czerwinkski (9 games) and Jill Vorreiter (8 games in 2022, .376 batting average) round out the Class of 2022.
The 2022 season kicks off the weekend of February 26-28 with the University of Rochester scheduled for four games in Salisbury, Md. (three against Salisbury and one against The College of New Jersey). RPI and Ithaca begin play the following weekend (March 4th-6th) in Florida and Pennsylvania respectively.
2022 Liberty League Softball Preseason Poll
Place. Team, Points
1. Rochester, 48 (6)
2. Ithaca, 40 (1)
3. Clarkson, 37 (1)
4. RPI, 35
5. Skidmore, 25
6. Union, 17
7. St. Lawrence, 15
8. RIT, 7