The Community College of Rhode Island softball team is on the road to Chattanooga, TN, as the No. 6 seed in this week?s NJCAA Division III Softball World Series.
After a record-breaking regular season in which they jumped out to the best start in program history by winning their first 20 games and finished with the school?s highest single-season win percentage, the Knights won the Region XXI and Northeast District titles to advance to the World Series for the first time.
CCRI is one of eight teams competing in the tournament and will play No. 6 seed and 2023 National Runner-Up SUNY Corning Community College of Corning, NY, in the opening round Wednesday at 3 pm. The entire tournament streams live on the NJCAA Network.
Corning enters the tournament 28-12 overall by sweeping Monroe and Hudson Valley Community Colleges to win the Region 3 and North B District championships, respectively. The Red Barons have won 17 of their last 18 since mid-April, which includes a 13-game win streak, and are ranked No. 4 in the nation ? two spots ahead of CCRI, which is 32-2 entering this week?s tournament and has won its last 11.
Corning features a balanced lineup led by freshman Brianna Greenlaw, who batted a team-best .473 with eight home runs and also drive in a team-high 58 runs. Sophomore Jenna Plue boasted a team-best .542 on-base percentage in addition to leading the team with nine home runs while driving in 49. Sophomore Lilly Callahan posted an impressive line that included a .437 average, a team-high 28 walks, 10 triples, 11 doubles, and 31 RBI. The Red Barons finished among the nation?s top teams in most offensive categories, including runs (4th), hits (4th), home runs (5th), batting average (6th), slugging percentage (4th), and extra base hits (3rd).
Plue is also the ace of the pitching staff, finishing 2024 sixth in the nation with 15 wins and second with 249 strikeouts in just 124.1 innings pitched. She also led the team with a 1.58 earned run average, seven complete games, and an impressive 14.02 strikeouts per nine innings. Plue last pitched in Game 1 of the North B District Tournament, tossing a complete game two-hitter with 11 strikeouts as Corning beat Hudson Valley, 3-1.
CCRI is confident it can match Corning pitch-for-pitch following a season in which it also finished among the top 10 in the nation in a number of categories, including fourth in home runs (30); second in RBI (307); third in hits (401); eighth in walks (132); second in batting average (.429), slugging (.631), and on-base percentage (.519); and second in total shutouts pitched (9).�Kate Motta�(Warwick, RI) led the team in hitting with a .514 average and a team-best .576 slugging percentage while sophomore�Ashley Klingberg (Coventry, RI) batted .470 and finished with seven home runs and 48 RBI. Freshman�Zoe Battersby�(West Warwick, RI) hit .490 and slugged a team-best .854 while leading the Knights with eight home runs.�
Freshman�Janina Mazzulla�(Johnston, RI) and sophomore co-captain�Victoria Butler�(Johnston, RI) finished unbeaten on the mound; Mazzulla went 11-0 with 69 strikeouts in just 59.0 innings pitched while Butler boasted an 8-0 record a team-best 0.53 ERA. Freshman Sophia Chevian (Warwick, RI) the team leader in wins with 13, finished with a 2.11 ERA with a team-best 71 strikeouts in 17 appearances.
The rest of the tournament field includes No. 1 seed and defending national champion North Dakota�State College of Science (51-9), No. 2 Patrick & Henry (30-24), No. 4 Rowan College of South Jersey Gloucester (24-8), No. 5 Caldwell Tech (27-19), No. 7 Herkimer (21-6), and No. 8 Rochester (19-18). Caldwell earned the lone at-large bid in the tournament.
The Softball World Series is a double-elimination tournament that concludes Saturday with the championship round ? either one or two games, if needed. NDSCS is making its fourth consecutive appearance; last year, the top-seeded Wildcats lost to No. 2 seed Corning in the semifinals and then emerged from the loser?s bracket to face Corning again in the finals, where they won twice on championship Saturday to capture the national championship, including a stunning victory in Game 2 in which they rallied from a five-run deficit with six runs in the bottom of the seventh inning for the walk-off win.