2024 NCAA Softball Regional preview banner

2024 NCAA Softball Regionals Preview

5/15/2024 11:00:00 AM

Nicole Ortega & Lauren Meyers vs Lynchburg, 3-14-24

The Rundown

The fifth-ranked Salisbury University softball team's quest for East Texas will begin from the friendly confines of Margie Knight Stadium. The Sea Gulls will host the four-team, double-elimination Salisbury Regional of the 2024 NCAA Division III Softball Tournament beginning on Thursday, May 16. SU will battle Manhattanville at 12 p.m. that day, followed by a showdown between No. 11 Randolph-Macon and Eastern at 2:30 p.m.

The #D3sb bracket is here ????

?? https://t.co/pbOkx6RAmn #DIII50 | #WhyD3 pic.twitter.com/rEXuDCDtaX
— NCAA Division III (@NCAADIII) May 13, 2024

Tournament Schedule

Thursday, May 16

Game 1 - Salisbury vs. Manhattanville - 12 p.m.

Game 2 - Eastern vs. Randolph-Macon - 2:30 p.m.

Friday, May 17

Game 3 - G1 Winner vs. G2 Winner - 11 a.m.

Game 4 - G1 Loser vs. G2 Loser - 1:30 p.m.

Game 5 - G3 Loser vs. G4 Winner - 4 p.m.

Saturday, May 18 - Regional Finals

Game 6 - G3 Winner vs. G5 Winner - 11 a.m.

Game 7 - If Necessary Game - 1:30 p.m.

Live Video

Live Stats

Regionals Information

NCAA Tournament Information

The 2024 Sea Gulls

#18 Abby Mace | Gr. OF | 3x C2C Player of the Year

#5 Natalie Paoli | Gr. INF | 4x All-C2C Teams

#19 Nicole Ortega | Sr. P | All-C2C First Team

#4 Meghan Reed | Sr. INF | C2C Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Salisbury finished the regular season with a 36-5, finishing runner-up in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference (C2C) Tournament.
After spending 10 weeks from the top slot last year, SU was ranked No. 1 in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top 25 poll for three weeks from Apr. 16-30.
The Sea Gulls won 29 straight games from Mar. 14 through Apr. 28, good for their third-longest winning streak in the past 16 seasons.
SU went 9-4 against teams that made the NCAA Tournament field, picking up wins over Rochester (x2), Rowan (x2), SUNY New Paltz, Manhattanville (x2), and Virginia Wesleyan (x2) while falling to Christopher Newport (x4).
Center fielder Abby Mace won her third career C2C Player of the Year award after previously garnering the honor in 2021 and 2022. Second baseman Meghan Reed was named C2C Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and head coach Lacey Lord headed up the C2C Coaching Staff of the Year.
Joining Mace and Reed on the All-C2C First Team were pitcher Nicole Ortega, catcher Emily Stockman, first baseman Lauren Meyers, shortstop Natalie Paoli, third baseman Emily Challender, and designated player Carrie Jacoby.
Pitcher Isabella Purdy and utility player Jillian Dawson were also recognized as All-C2C Honorable Mention.
Salisbury sports the C2C's best offense in several major categories, batting a league-best .359 as a team with 292 runs (7.1 per game), 38 home runs, and 256 RBIs, while ranking second in stolen bases (104).
Abby Mace leads the C2C with 19 home runs - nobody else has more than five - and 51 RBIs while boasting a league-leading .484 batting average and ranking second in steals (33).
Two other Sea Gulls are batting over .400, including Emily Challender (.429) and Meghan Reed (.403), while Natalie Paoli (.392) rounds out the top five.
Paoli ranks second in the conference in home runs (5), while Carrie Jacoby (4) is tied for third.
Paoli's 35 RBIs slot second behind Mace, while Jacoby (31) and Reed (29) rank third and fifth, respectively.
Challender has stolen 19 bags, tied for fourth-most in the C2C.
Nicole Ortega leads the C2C with 16 wins and ranks second in ERA (1.28), as well as fourth in strikeouts (67).
Isabella Purdy has won 10 games as a pitcher, good for fifth in the league.
Sydney Adolfson's 1.64 ERA slots third among qualifying pitchers.
Madison Taylor and Lindsey Windsor have each posted two saves, tied for most in the league.
Salisbury boasts national rankings inside the top 10 in home runs (38), homers per game (0.93), slugging percentage (.552), and fielding percentage (.974). SU also slots top-20 in Division III in batting average (.359), on-base percentage (.433), total hits (395), runs per game (7.12), and total runs scored (292).
Abby Mace sits atop the national leaderboard in home runs (19) while also leading Division III in slugging (1.139), and total bases (139). She also carries top-30 marks in average (.484), doubles (17), on-base percentage (.599), RBIs (51), and walks per game (0.88).
Emily Challender has been hit by a pitch 14 times, good for 10th nationally. She also ranks 56th in on-base percentage (.523) and 126th in average (.429).
Natalie Paoli carries top-200 marks in hits (49), homers (5), homers per game (0.112), RBIs (35), sac bunts per game (0.24), and total bases (75).
Nicole Ortega's 16 wins place her 37th in the nation. Ortega (1.28), Sydney Adolfson (1.64), and Isabella Purdy (2.30) all slot top-200 in ERA.
Adolfson also boasts the nation's best strikeout-to-walk ratio (20.00) and walks per seven innings (0.33), plus its 20th-best WHIP (0.84).

Scouting Report

Manhattanville Valiants

Eastern Eagles

No. 11 Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets

Manhattanville returns to Salisbury for the second time in 2024 after dropping two games to the Sea Gulls, 14-2 and 8-0 in five innings each, on Mar. 22. The Valiants posted a 31-10 record and went 17-1 in the Skyline Conference, winning their 13th Skyline championship and repeating as league title winners by defeating Old Westbury 10-1 in five innings in the championship game.

Eastern enters the national tournament at 30-6 overall and 13-1 in MAC Commonwealth play. The Eagles won their first-ever MAC Commonwealth Tournament championship, defeating York (Pa.) 5-1 on the back of a no-hitter by Danika Barthol in the final game.

Randolph-Macon heads north to the Delmarva Peninsula boasting a 31-5-2 mark, going 20-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). The Yellow Jackets earned an at-large bid into the field of 62 after failing to advance out of pod play in the ODAC Tournament with a pair of losses to league runner-up Roanoke.

What's At Stake

The winner of the Salisbury Regional advances to the Super Regionals, which runs from Thursday, May 23 through Friday, May 24 at a location to be determined.
The NCAA Softball Championship, hosted by East Texas Baptist University, will be held from May 30 through June 5 inside Bell Park at Taylor Field in Marshall, Texas.

The Rundown

Tournament Schedule

The 2024 Sea Gulls

Scouting Report

What's At Stake

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