Athenas ranked No. 8 in NFCA Preseason Poll
CLAREMONT, Calif. – After SCIAC and NCAA Regional Tournament wins and NCAA Super Regional appearance in the 2014 season, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps softball team is ranked No. 8 in the 2015 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Preseason Poll.
Last season, the Athenas put up a 32-15 record, the fourth highest number of wins in program history. In the postseason alone, CMS was 7-3 leading to its third consecutive SCIAC Tournament win and sweep in its first ever NCAA Regional Championships win. The 2014 season marked the sixth consecutive NCAA appearance for the Athenas.
In the best-of-three NCAA Super Regional, CMS faced East Texas Baptist University and won the second game to force the third. The ETBU Tigers came up with two big walk-off home run wins to take the series and advance to the final eight in the NCAA Softball Championships.
After the Athenas' Super Regional appearance, they finished the season ranked tenth in the nation and are now ranked eighth in the 2015 NFCA Preseason Poll.
Offensively, the team had a .324 batting average and .411 slugging percentage on the season. Defensively the Athenas boasted a .966 fielding percentage and a staggering 1.98 earned run average.
Head Coach Betsy Hipple enters her tenth season at CMS, already with 254 wins under her belt. CMS starts with an Alumni Game on Jan. 31 and then opens its season on the road at Vanguard (NAIA) on Feb. 7.
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