The softball Rams have had a great season, reaching the GNAC Championship final for the first time in seven years. The team posted a 16-25 record on the season earning some incredible victories against mighty opponents. One of such performances came in the first round of the GNAC playoffs tournament against seed Norwich College. The Rams were seeded as number eights, but did not let the rankings scare them and secured a huge upset through a hard fight and concentration.
Later on the Rams went on to beat River College and St. Joseph of Connecticut. In the final the Rams faced the other St. Joseph team, from Maine. Even though Suffolk fought and wanted to capture its first GNAC Championship title since 2001, St. Joseph was simply too strong and had a better day on the field. Even though a loss in a championship game always hard, the Rams have reason to be proud of their season.
In addition, this young team did not lose any players since there were no seniors in the team. Six freshmen are being recruited for the next season.” I’m really proud of everything that happened this season. I think we made a great run in the end and I couldn’t be happier with all the work they put in and the progress that they made throughout the year. I look forward to continuing to improve every year,” head coach Jaclyn Davis said.
The Rams definitely showed a lot of character this season and proved that they belong could rise to the very top of the GNAC conference.
“Our strengths were definitely the versatility that we had and our ability to fight. We did have a team of great fighters and they worked really hard every day to keep themselves in games and continue to be successful. Where we struggled was just numbers. We didn’t have big enough of a roster as we would have liked and that is where we struggled,” Davis continued.
The team already has great individual talent and some of the players in the team really stood out this season. For instance, Erin Andrews had an outstanding season and was named to the NFCA-all region (North East All Region) team while gaining the GNAC player of the year award. Andrews earned a first team all conference selection as well. Sophomores Sarah Chase and Nicole Rosa both had great seasons too and earned second and third team conference selection. Another sophomore, Alicia Gonella made the all-sportsmanship and all-tournament team. Together with their other team mates these players could all play a key role in the championship hunt next season.
“I think we have talent coming in that certainly will help us with numbers and giving us different options, and I think that is my job every year to continue to bring talent in and support the talent that we have to make us better. We actually didn’t lose any seniors this year, we will have everyone back which is good and right now we have six freshmen coming on in the fall and if we can draw some transfer students in there, I think we will be all right,” Davis said.
With the new players joining the team, the Rams are looking to have a bright future. Whenever a team gets six freshmen a coach has a reason to be happy. This will add depth to the team and it seems like that is exactly what the rams are looking for heading into the new season.
