Riverdale, N.Y.- The Manhattan College Softball Team had three players named All-MAAC and eight named to the MAAC All-Academic Team, it was announced tonight at the MAAC Softball Awards Banquet. Freshman
Danielle Just was named First Team All-MAAC Designated Player, while senior
Kiera Fox was named Second Team All-MAAC Infield and junior
Liz Strein was named Second Team All-MAAC Outfield.
Just had an outstanding rookie campaign, batting .352 with 50 hits and 40 RBI. Her batting average places her 11th in the MAAC, while her .391 average in MAAC games was ninth best in the conference. The 40 runs batted in is the fifth best single season mark in program history, while her five sacrifice flies tied her with teammate Fox for the team and MAAC lead. Just tallied 15 multi-hit games and four hitting streaks of six games or more.
Fox, who will graduate as the career home run queen with 30 round trippers, batted a team-leading .374 while also leading the team with 45 runs, 11 home runs, and 55 RBI. Her RBI, walk, and run totals also paced the MAAC, while her RBI tally was the second most by a Lady Jasper in a season, trailing only Danielle Yearick's 1991 total. In conference games, her .587 slugging % and .439 on base % paced the MAAC. The senior tallied 15 multi-hit games and 17 multi-RBI games, and her name will appear on the Manhattan career lists in runs, hits, home runs, RBI, walks, and stolen bases. Her 127 hits in a Lady Jasper uniform ranks her 10th on the career list, as she became the 14th member of the 100 hit club on April 9 at Rider.
Strein raised her batting average 100 points from her sophomore to junior campaigns, as she was second on the team and ninth in the MAAC with a .372 average. She led the team with 61 hits, the most by a Lady Jasper since the 1993 season, and was third in the MAAC and second on the team with 41 runs scored. Strein tallied 18 multi-hit games, and, after starting the season with an 11 game hit streak, also posted two more streaks of seven games or more. She also became just the 15th member of the Lady Jasper 100 hit club on May 2 vs. Central Connecticut State.
The trio, who all tallied 50 or more hits, became the first troika at Manhattan to each tally 50 or more hits since the 1993 season, as this year the Lady Jasper offense put up numbers that ranks them among the best ever at Manhattan, as the totals rank the team in the top five in 13 offensive categories, including batting average, RBI, sacrifice hits, hits, and runs.
Fox and Strein were also named MAAC All-Academic, and were joined by seniors
Tina Buyea,
Coleen Horgan and
Jill Medea, and juniors Kerry Cook,
Stefanie Gozdziewski, and
Michelle Gutierrez.
Manhattan concluded its season with a 26-24 record, 6-10 in MAAC play. The 26 wins were the most since the 1994 season and tied for fourth in program history, and the winning record was the first for the program since the 1995 season.
