Coaches project a fifth-place finish for Seahawks

BIDDEFORD, Maine – Two-time defending Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Softball Tournament Champion Endicott is looking to continue its reign as conference champion in 2022 and comes into the year as the preseason favorite.

The Gulls earned the top spot in the CCC Softball Coaches Preseason Poll this year with 99 points and nine of the 10 first place votes. The voting was conducted by the league's 10 softball head coaches last week.

Endicott went 11-1 in conference play (20-4 overall) last year in a modified conference schedule. The Gulls were the top team in Pod B and earned a spot in the CCC Pod B Final where they swept the University of New England to advance to the CCC Championship round. In the Championship, they swept Western New England to earn a trip to the NCAA Softball Championship. Endicott went 1-2 in NCAA Regional action.

Ranking second in this year's poll is the CCC Tournament runner-up, Western New England. The Golden Bears earned 90 points and the final first place vote in this year's polling. The Golden Bears went 11-5 in CCC play (16-8 overall) and earned the top seed in Pod A in 2021. They swept Nichols to earn their spot in the CCC Championship Series before falling to the Gulls.

The University of New England and Roger Williams landed in the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, in this year's poll. The Nor'easters earned 67 points, while the Hawks received 60. Salve Regina closed out the top half of the table with 57 points for fifth place.

Closing out the poll were Nichols (54 points), Suffolk (50), Gordon (37), Wentworth (22), and Curry (14) in that order.

CCC Softball teams hit the diamond for the first time on Saturday, March 5 for non-conference action. These early games will set the stage for conference play which begins on Friday, April 1. The top eight teams as the end of the regular-season will qualify for the 2022 CCC Softball Championship Tournament, which is set to begin on Thursday, May 5 and conclude with the championship round on Saturday, May 7. The winner of the CCC Championship game will be named the 2022 CCC Softball Tournament Champion and earn the league's automatic qualifier into the 2022 NCAA Division III Softball Championship.

2022 CCC Softball Preseason Coaches' Poll

Salve Regina University first-year head coach Shauna Mulkerin inherits deep roster that got even deeper with the addition of nine new players. All but two Seahawks returned from last year's squad. 

Returning captain Emilee Angell (Whitinsville, Mass.) gets a boost from teammates Jaycee Garrigan (Uxbridge, Mass.) and Nikki Vanelli (Quakertown, Pa.) sharing the leadership duties. Garrigan returns after missing last season. 

Second-year slugger Christina Braid (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) returns after posting team-highs in home runs (4) and runs batted in (13). Her classmate Maddie Capetta (Raritan, N.J.) produced the Seahawks' highest averages in batting (.449) and slugging (.735). 

Braid (2), Capetta, Vanelli, and Kendall Duprey (Cranston, R.I.) slugged a record-setting five home runs in one frame to complete a sweep of Curry College on the road last season. Salve Regina hit 11 home runs in its first six games of 2021, but did not hit another after Vanelli's walk-off roundtripper against Western New England on April 2 (final 10 games homerless). 

Senior Maddy Fluke (Douglas, Mass.) returns after logging the most innings pitched (47.0) of any Seahawk last year; that included six complete games, two shutouts, and a league's third-best 2.23 earned run average. She earned All-CCC accolades in 2021 along with fellow Seahawks Capetta, Vanelli, and Jessica Roberts (Dix Hills, N.Y.).

Fluke will share pitching duties with Garrigan and newcomer Alex Kelly (East Meadow, N.Y.). The 25-player roster Mulkerin selected is eight less than her 33-player roster last season as an assistant at Muskingum University. 

"Sometimes you get a little nervous when you have big rosters," says Mulkerin. "But it's been a lot of fun because we've been able to have multiple people at different positions, we've been able to have a full field and have extra base runners. Every position has competition and we're going to be able to move people around a lot which will make us not just better players but a better program."