LOUISVILLE, KY – For the first time this season, the Alfred University softball team is receiving votes in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) national polls, as the organization released its latest Division III Top-25 poll on Wednesday, April 21.
Alfred received three points to make its season debut at No. 33. The Saxons enter the NFCA weekly poll for the first time since March 16, 2016.
Alfred (18-5, 9-3 Empire 8) has won eight games in a row and are off to its best start since 2015. The Saxons as a team are averaging an impressive eight runs a game and they are among NCAA Division III's top teams in batting average (.357), on-base percentage (.436), slugging percentage (.474), stolen bases (69), strikeouts to walk ratio (6.12), and walks plus hits per innings pitched (WHIP; 1.13). This year's Saxons have already stolen more bases than any team in program history through just 23 games played.
Junior infielder
Ashley Lugo (Hesperia, CA/Oak Hills) is fourth nationally in stolen bases with a record-mark of 33, as she is also the all-time
AU and Empire 8 career stolen bases leader after a doubleheader victory against Nazareth last Tuesday. She also leads the team in batting average (.468), hits (36), doubles (nine), triples (four), runs scored (30), runs batted in (22), and is tied for the team lead in home runs (two).
Six Saxons are batting .330 or better, a list that includes Lugo, first year infielder
Mya Wells (San Ramon, CA/California) at .426, junior outfielder
Alyssa Guitron (San Bernardino, CA/Cajon) at .409, graduate infielder
Elena Ceja (Redondo Beach, CA/Redondo Beach Union) at .377, sophomore outfielder
Isabella Carrillo (Van Nuys, CA/Birmingham Community Charter) at .360, and junior infielder
Tatiana Mejia (North Hills, CA/John F. Kennedy) at .347. Regular starters, senior outfielder
Sydney Saucedo (Whittier, CA/La Serna) and sophomore infielder
Molly Lawson (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA/Trabuco), are also hitting the ball well with batting averages at .328 and .308, respectively.
In the circle, the Saxon pitchers have combined for a solid 2.52 earned run average. Leading the way is graduate pitcher
Jessica Wilcox (Forestville, NY/Pine Valley). Wilcox sports a 9-2 record and a 1.51 earned run average in 12 appearances and is fifth nationally in both strikeouts (135) and strikeouts per seven innings (12.7). Wilcox has rewritten the pitching record books, as earlier this season has earned the
career wins and the
strikeouts in a game records, as well as tying the
career shutouts record.
First year pitcher
Megan Bennett (Athens, PA/Athens Area) has enjoyed a solid first year in the Purple and Gold, as she sports a 6-1 record in seven starts and 12 appearances. She is second with a 2.39 earned run average and has 43 strikeouts in 44 innings pitched.
The Saxons will travel to Nazareth for a pair of games on Friday, April 23 and will host No. 13 St. John Fisher in a doubleheader on Saturday, April 24.
