Overview
The #3 Caldwell University softball team faces #6 Merrimack College in their opening game of the NCAA Division II Championship on Thursday, May 11 at 2:30 pm. The East Region 2 bracket will be hosted by Molloy College in Rockville Centre, NY. The Cougars enter Thursday's game with a 44-13 record, while the Warriors are 33-13.
 
Multimedia
Live stats and video will be available for Thursday's game. All links will be available at http://www.molloylions.com/schedule.aspx?path=softball
 
Scouting the Cougars (44-13, 25-1 CACC)
The Cougars won their seventh Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Championship this past week as they defeated Philadelphia University in the finals. Caldwell is led by the CACC Player of the Year junior Marisa Monasseri (Monroe, N.J.). She is batting .507 this season with 11 doubles, 11 homeruns and 65 RBI. Senior Lauren Frye (Jupiter, Fla.) is batting .428 this season with 12 doubles, two triples, 25 RBI and is 9-for-9 in stolen bases. Senior Sydney Ponto (West Deptford, N.J.), the CACC Pitcher of the Year, has posted a 29-4 record in the pitching circle with a 1.60 ERA. She has struck out 255 batters in 205.1 innings pitched this season. Ponto earned CACC Tournament MVP honors after going 4-0 to help lead the Cougars to the conference title.
 
Scouting the Warriors (33-13, 19-5 NE-10)
The Warriors won the Northeast-10 Conference North Division this season and fell to Adelphi University in the NE-10 Championship game. Alyssa Williamson leads the Warriors this season with a .373 batting average along with 14 doubles and 28 RBI. Samantha Waskowitz is batting .368 this season with 14 doubles, 40 runs scored, three homeruns and 28 RBI. Megan Cook has posted a 10-5 record in the pitching circle with a 1.58 ERA. She leads the Warriors with 98 strikeouts in 128.1 innings pitched. Haley Currie is 12-3 with 11 complete games and four saves.
 
Next Up
The winners of the first round game will face the winner of the #2 Molloy/#7 NYIT match-up at 11 am on Friday. The loser of this game will face the loser of the first game at 1:30 pm on Friday.
 
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