CHICAGO – After an eventful season of BIG EAST softball, the top four teams from the regular season are ready to compete in the 2017 BIG EAST Championship presented by Jeep, this weekend at the Ball Park at Rosemont in the suburbs of Chicago. This year’s softball championship is the 28
th in conference history and will see St. John’s, DePaul, Villanova ant Butler fight for the 2017 title.All games will be broadcast on FS2 with Bob Holtzman as play-by-play, Dave Bernhard as color analyst and Matt Schumacker as sideline reporter.
Game 1: #1 St. John’s vs. #4 Butler | Live Stats
The Red Storm captured its second regular season BIG EAST title in three years, after posting a 17-4 record in conference action. Looking to extend the momentum of a seven-game win streak, St. John’s will be powered by seven all-league selections including first-team honorees, Gretchen Bowie, Monique Landini, and Lauren Zick.
Selected as a utility player, Bowie closed out her rookie campaign ranked second in the league in RBIs (26), tied for third in total bases (46), fourth in slugging (.708) and tied for fifth in home runs (5), behind an impressive .369 batting average. Playing at shortstop, Landini finished her senior campaign ranking sixth in runs scored (18), seventh in total hits (25) and eighth in batting (.379), on base percentage (.481) and RBIs (19). Adding speed to St. John’s line up, Zick ranked seventh in the nation with 0.83 steals per game and led the conference with 24 steals. She also topped the league in runs scored (29) and finished fourth in total hits (26). St. John’s swept Butler 3-0 in the fourth week of league action.
Making its second consecutive BIG EAST Championship appearance, the No.4 Bulldogs are led by All-BIG EAST Second Team selections Jenna Foreman and Kaitlin Doud. Foreman paced the Butler offense with a team-best .380 batting average, 57 hits and 33 runs scored. Doud added strength to the lineup with 29 hits, 25 RBI and 15 hits. In the circle, Doud also collected a team-high eight wins in 28 appearances.
Game 2: #2 DePaul vs. #3 Villanova | Live Stats
The Blue Demons come into the post season as the second seed for the fourth time in program history. DePaul finsihed the regular season on a three-game winning streak with a series sweep over Creighton, last weekend at home. The Blue Demons are led by BIG EAST Freshman of the Year Jessica Cothern and All-BIG EAST First Team selections Micah Fitzgerald, Nicole Pihl and Missy Zoch.
Cothern led all rookies with a .452 batting average and a conference-high 28 hits. The catcher ranked second on the DePaul roster in batting average, knocking in 14 runs behind four homers and three doubles. Together, Cothern, Fitzgerald and Pihl account for 49 runs, 86 hits and 41 RBI on the squad. Zoch holds a 2.49 ERA in BIG EAST action. She ranks third in the conference with 60 strikeouts in 54 innings pitched among league opponents.
The Villanova Wildcats enter the four-team field boasting the conference’s Pitcher of the Year for a second consecutive season, this time in Brette Lawrence. A dependable hurler for the Wildcats, Lawrence capped off her senior season throwing a league-high 88.2 innings while recording a BIG EAST-best 10 wins in the circle. The Wildcat was selected BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week twice this season and was the only pitcher in the league to be recognized as the Louisville Slugger NFCA National Division I Pitcher of the Week. Overall, Lawrence ranks 29th in the NCAA in strikeouts with 184, including a league-best 85 posted in BIG EAST play. Villanova blanked DePaul in their three meetings in the sixth weekend of BIG EAST play.
The two-day championship held at the Ballpark at Rosemont is set to begin with No.1 St. John’s-No.4 Butler at Noon CT followed by No.2 DePaul-No.3 Villanova at 3 p.m. The Championship game will be held Saturday at 1:30 p.m.