Gator softball captains announced for the new season.
Allison Bishop, Ashley Eberle, Kellie Jones, and Meghan Welcome will lead the Gators in 2010 on the softball field.
Troy, NY---The Sage Colleges softball program has announced the 2010 team captains for the coming year. The Gators will open the season next week when they travel to Clermont, Florida to compete in the Spring Training Trip at the National Training Center.
Head Coach Lindsay Sawyer announced that the 2010 team captains are junior Allison Bishop (Troy, NY/Lansingburgh), sophomore Ashley Eberle (Delmar, NY/Bethlehem), graduate student Kellie Jones (Troy, NY/Troy), and sophomore Meghan Welcome (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes).
Now in her third season with the Gators, Sawyer returns seven players that earned letters a year ago and helped the 2009 team to a 7-29 record, while producing a 3-11 mark in Skyline Conference play.
A year ago, Sage produced five players that earned a spot on the 2009 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) girls got game/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete Team. Three of those honorees are among the 2010 team captains as Bishop, Jones and Eberle were all honored.
Sawyer said of the selection of the 2010 captains, " Kellie and Allison claim the captain title for the third and second year, respectively, while Ashley and Meghan are sophomores and first time appointments." Sawyer added, "All of these young ladies are very deserving as they are key performers and work tirelessly to promote Sage softball. Collectively, they are the perfect mix of personality and work ethic. It says a lot about a team, and an institution, for that matter, that consistently places highly-qualified sophomores into leadership positions."
Bishop, who is a member of Sage's Student Athlete Advisory Committee, is a business and communications major at Sage. She batted .291 a year ago with 13 extra-base hits and started all 34 games for the Gators. She is a returning team captain, having served as the co-captain a year ago, while also earning a spot on the 2009 Skyline Conference All-Academic Team.
Jones is a two-sport student-athlete for the Gators, having also excelled as a member of the Gator women's volleyball team. A two-sport team captain, she is a returning captain in softball. She is majoring in physical therapy and also honored by the Skyline Conference with a spot on the 2009 Softball All-Star Second Team after batting a team-leading .400 with a .695 slugging percentage with 26 RBI.
Eberle is a math education major at Sage and batted .250 last year with 26 starts and returns this season with experience under her belt as she is plays in the outfield for the Gators. She added four doubles and was a perfect 4-4 on stolen bases last season.
Welcome added a .286 average last spring with 31 starts at third base and drove in 13 RBIs in 2009 with seven extra-base hits. She had 22 hits with 10 runs scored and had a .390 slugging percentage.
Among the key returnees looking to also make an impact for the Gators on the diamond is sophomore infielder Jennifer Ahearn (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes). As a rookie, she batted .333, which was second on the team, She had 31 hits and 21 RBIs, after adding nine extra-base hits. She was the co-leader on the squad with Jones as the pair added four homeruns each in 2009. She had a .527 slugging percentage and was 12-13 on the base paths.
Look for depth for the Gators with a talented pitching staff that will be lead by sophomore Kristen Knights (Chatham, NY/Chatham). Knights made 23 appearances as a rookie and finished the season with a 5.5 ERA in 121 innings of work with 46 K's. She will be joined by a talented incoming class that includes Nichole French (Harrisville, NY/Harrisville Central), Olivia Sullivan (Copenhagen, NY/Copenhagen), and Gabriella Skillen (Milford, NY/Milford Central).
In talking about the upcoming season, Sawyer said "This year, we boast a very talented roster from start to finish." She added, "We have fantastic leadership from our returners and captains, and I'm really excited to see what the newcomers will contribute. Our pitching staff has quadrupled in size, which will take some of the burden off of Knights, our lone returner in the circle. Offensively, we continue to be strong, but defensively and in the circle we're stronger than last year. I'm really looking forward to this team coming together as a unit because I think we're going to be a force in the Skyline Conference."
The 2010 Gators will face some tough competition on their spring
training trip as they will take to the diamond eight times before
returning to the confines of Robison Softball Field in Troy for
their home opener on March 24 when they host Green Mountain College
in a doubleheader at 3:00 p.m.
Sage opens the 2010 season on Monday, March 8 facing Simmons College. Among the 2010 opponents the team will face in Florida are Simmons College (MA), Northwestern College (MN), The College of New Jersey (NJ), Penn State Behrend (PA), Wisconsin Lutheran College (WI), Dominican University (IL), Northland College (WI), and Muskingum College (OH).
-30-
