All RSS feed content is owned by the respective 3rd party website.
Some weather scares had the weekend’s contests up in the air for much of the week, but things have settled in closer to game time as the Clarkson University Softball team will play host to RIT and University of Rochester on Friday and Saturday.
The Series: The Golden Knights spit with RIT a year ago, winning game one 4-2 and then dropping a 9-7 slugfest in the second contest. Prior to that doubleheader split, Clarkson had swept the Tigers four times from 2021-2023. At the other end of the spectrum, Rochester has swept Clarkson in four straight doubleheaders, with the Yellowjackets posting four shutouts in that stretch.
Key Stats for Clarkson (11-10, 1-1 Liberty League): The Golden Knights have already matched last season’s win total thanks to improvements in all portions of the game. Clarkson has ridden hot bats from a number of hitters this year, with the most recent potent stick coming from Lexi Rydelek. The sophomore is on a seven-game hitting streak where she is batting .563 (9-for-16). Earlier in the week, Devin Fitzpatrick tied the single-season home run mark (7) and also broke the career record for long bombs with 16. She leads the conference in home runs and is second in slugging at .814.
Key Stats for RIT (5-13, 0-2 Liberty League): The Tigers have only five wins despite a team slash line of .366/.412/.510, an all-star season for an individual hitter. RIT has surpassed 10 hits in 14 of the team’s 18 games. Kate Carlone leads the conference in average (.533) and on-base percentage (.580) while Maddy Cook is second in hitting (.500) and the top performer in slugging percentage (.824) thanks to 12 doubles. Emma Merkley and Anna Cavotta are also batting above .400 for the season.
Key Stats for Rochester (10-8, 2-0 Liberty League): The Yellowjackets began the season flawless in conference thanks to a sweep of RIT (6-0, 8-2). Sophomore Riley Laygo was a walking award a year ago, as the Liberty League Player of the Year, All-Region First-Team Selection, finalist for NFCA Freshman of the Year, and a Second-Team All-American. This year she is off to another strong start, hitting .381/.435/.810 with 10 doubles, five home runs, and 16 RBI. Bailey Nicholoff is also off to a slugging start with four home runs in just 51 plate appearances. Molly Broccolo has 43 strikeouts in 49.2 innings and a 2.54 earned run average with two solo shutouts and two shared shutouts.