The College of Staten Island softball team secured a trip to the NCAA Division III National Championship this past weekend by virtue of their CUNYAC Championship, and will usher in Regional Round play this afternoon against the threat of rain when they face The College of New Jersey at 1:30pm at the Lions’ campus in Ewing, NJ. The Regional Round follows a double-elimination format. Win or lose, the Dolphins will play again tomorrow against either Neumann College or Manhattanville College. Those two teams are slated for an 11am start.
CSI vs. THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY AT-A-GLANCE
Matchup: CSI (25-12 Overall) vs. The College of New Jersey (28-14 Overall)
Where: Dr. June Walker Field – 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ
First Pitch: 1:30pm
Ticket Info: Adults – $6 / Students – $3 / Senior, Veterans – $4 / Children under 12 – $3 / Children under 2 – Free
Live Statistics: http://www.sidearmstats.com/tcnj/softball/
Live Video: https://www.boxcast.com/show/#/ncaa-regional-game-2—4-the-college-of-staten-island-vs-1-tcnj-467012
All-Time Series: TCNJ leads, 2-0
This Year’s Result: Did Not Play
Players to Watch (CSI): Jacqueline Cautela took home CUNYAC Tournament MVP honors and with good reason, coming off of two no-hitters in the tourney to lift her record to 13-6 with an ERA of 1.70. She is also .376 from the dish with 17 doubles and a team-high 43 runs scored. Christina Tufano leads the unit in hitting at .398, pacing CSI with 45 hits and 36 RBI. Vanessa Joia is close behind at .388.
Players to Watch (TCNJ): Gaby Bennett leads the Lions with a .368 average at the dish, stroking a team-best 46 hits and sharing the team lead with 26 RBI. Deanna Utter raised her average to .330, part of eight other Lions averaging .300 or better at the plate. Sam Platt is the team’s ace of a large Lions staff. She is 17-4 this season with a 2.15 ERA, striking out 72 batters in 124 innings of work.
News and Notes: Today marks the 9th entry into the national tournament for CSI. They boast a 3-16 all-time record in Regional Round play, but last year won their first game at Regionals since 2007 with a 9-1 win over William Paterson University. It is their first-ever matchup with the Lions as part of postseason play, and they are 1-6 all-time against teams from the New Jersey Athletic Conference in the NCAA Tournament. The Lions were runners-up in the NJAC Championship playoffs this past weekend. TCNJ is returning to the NCAA championship tournament for the first time since 2013. These two teams have met only once, back in 2007, in what was the season opener for CSI. The Lions took both meetings, 1-0, and 14-3. This will be their first-ever meeting at TCNJ’s facility. The Lions will host the entire Regional bracket. Neumann will face Manhattanville at 11am today and then the Tournament will continue on Saturday. Friday’s two winning teams will play at 10am on Saturday, then the two losing sides from Friday will play at 12:30pm and play continues up until Saturday when a Regional winner will advance to participate at Super Regionals. The record-book watch will continue for CSI senior third-baseman Christina Tufano. She needs 10 more at-bats to tie the career at-bat record and one more triple to tie that career mark as well. She set career marks for hits, RBI and doubles this season as well.
