ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College softball team is ready to roll as they will travel to RPI on Thursday for the three-day, double elimination Liberty League Tournament. The Bombers who are seeded No. 3 after finishing the regular season with a 25-10-1 record and 10-4 mark in conference action will open the first round against the University of Rochester at 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 11. The YellowJackets enter the postseason with a 32-6 overall record and 13-1 record within the Liberty League as they earned the No. 2 seed.
ABOUT THE LIBERTY LEAGUE TOURNAMENT:
Five teams qualified for this weekend's tournament, after finishing in the top five positions in the Liberty League standings. Coming to Troy, N.Y. this weekend will be RPI (31-7), University of Rochester (32-6), Ithaca College (25-10-1), Union (14-18) and Clarkson (20-16). RPI was awarded the No. 1 seed and hosting rights for this year's tournament. Rochester is the No. 2 seed, Ithaca is the three seed, Union is the fourth seed and Clarkson is the fifth seed.
On Thursday, No. 5 Clarkson will face No. 4 Union at 10 a.m. to play into the Liberty League Tournament, with the winner moving on to face off against No. 1 RPI. Later in the day, No. 3 Ithaca will take on No. 2 Rochester at 3 p.m. The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship.
The full schedule for this weekend's championship is listed below:
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE:
All game will available via
LIVE STATS and WEBCAST.
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
Day 1 (Thursday)
Play In Game – CLARKSON vs. UNION - 10 a.m.
Game 1 – Winner CLARKSON/UNION vs. RPI – 12:30 pm
Game 2 – ITHACA vs. ROCHESTER – 3 p.m.
Day 2 (Friday)
Game 3 - Loser G1 vs. Loser G2 - 10 am
Game 4 - Winner G1 vs. Winner G2 - 1 pm
Game 5 - Loser G4 vs. Winner G3 - 4 pm
Day 3 (Saturday)
Game 6 - Winner G4 vs. Winner G5 - 12 pm
Game 7 - Same Teams as G6 - If Necessary
SCOUTING THE BOMBERS:
The Bombers are 25-10-1 on the season and went 10-4 during the regular season in Liberty League play. On the mound, Ithaca leads the Liberty League in ERA (1.44), strikeouts (307) and has the lowest earned runs against with 50. IC is second in the conference in innings pitched with 242.2. At the plate, The Bombers rank fifth in the Liberty League in hits (273) and fourth in RBI (146) and runs (161).
IC was swept by Rochester and RPI this season, only scoring a combined six runs against the two teams, getting shutout three times. Ithaca swept Union and Clarkson this season, shutting both teams out while scoring a combined 21 runs against the two teams. The Bombers are 18-17 all time against Rochester, 33-13 vs. RPI, 20-1 vs. Union and 12-1 vs. Clarkson.
Leading the way for the Bombers at the plate this season has been
Hudson Hassler. Hassler is batting .358 at the plate totaling 29 runs, eight doubles and four triples. Hassler has also accumulated 22 RBI.
Sela Scheinman is right behind Hassler on the stat sheet, batting .342 across 111 at-bats. Scheinman has scored 23 runs and brought in nine RBI. Scheinman leads the Bombers with nine doubles.
Haley Petrucci has had a monster first-year campaign collecting a team-high 23 RBI and has blasted four home runs.
On the mound,
Anna Cornell leads all pitchers with a 1.67 ERA across 18 starts, amassing a 13-4 record. Cornell has struck out 140 batters and has only allowed 68 hits and 20 earned runs.
Riley Piromalli has put together a solid senior campaign with a 2.03 ERA across 18 starts leading to a 12-6 record. Piromalli leads the Bombers with 157 strikeouts. Piromalli spun a 7-0 no-hitter against SUNY Geneseo
for the Bombers on May 3. Piromalli is the first Bomber to throw a no-hitter since Beth Fleming did it against RPI in the 2021 Liberty League tournament
SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS:
RPI is the conference's top seed after placing first in the Liberty League standings at the conclusion of the regular season. RPI only had one Liberty League loss, coming from a split against the University of Rochester. After taking the first game 4-3, the Engineers were blanked 7-0 by the YellowJackets. They are led by Alexis Cooke in the pitching circle as she has tossed 91.2 innings where she is 13-3 and during conference play in six appearances across 30 innings, she has an ERA of 0.00. The Engineers also have four hitters batting above .300 including Erin Askins who is hitting .431 this year and has scored 43 runs.
SCOUTING THE YELLOWJACKETS:
The YellowJackets are making their 16th appearance in the Liberty League postseason tournament. Rochester has two wins (2019, 2021), three runner-up finishes, three 3rd place results and finished 4th on seven occasions. Rochester enters the postseason ranked No. 18 in the latest NFCA Division III Top-25 Poll that was released on Tuesday. They have an extremely balanced lineup that includes Ally Kim who was the Liberty League Rookie of the Year a season ago. She has 42 stolen bases on the season and teammate Jenna Gorecki has driven in 35 while hitting .389. In the pitching circle, first year Molly Broccolo leads the way with a 17-2 record with an ERA of 0.72 in 117 innings pitched.
SCOUTING THE DUTCHWOMEN:
Union is making its first appearance in the postseason since 2018 and eighth Liberty League Tournament appearance overall. The Dutchwomen needed a four-run come from behind win to get into the Liberty League tournament on the final day of the season, knocking off St. Lawrence by a 4-3 score to move into a tie for fourth place in the conference standings. They earned the No. 4 seed over Clarkson after they lost the tiebreaker.
Karson Saunders once again has paced the Dutchwomen in almost all statistical categories. Saunders is batting .515, with 52 hits, 26 RBI, 77 total bases, a .762 slugging percentage, and is 22-23 when stealing this season.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS:
n the circle, Riley Page and Devin Fitzpatrick have carried the majority of the load for the Golden Knights. Page is 12-7 with a 3.19 ERA and 113.0 innings pitched. She has also struck out 98 batters on the season. Fitzpatrick is 8-7 with a 3.65 ERA and 113.1 innings pitched. Sophomore catcher Zoey Kovach paces the team in RBI with 19, while senior Bridget Twaits is batting .372 with four doubles, two triples and a homer. Elizabeth Greco has ridden a hot streak to push her average to a team-best .373, going 18-for-40 in her last 14 games to raise her batting average 87 points in that time.
The winner of Clarkson/Union will move on to the double-elimination tournament, where they will face the No. 1 seed RPI at 12:30 p.m.
