Softball Enters NEAC Tournament Riding High

Keuka College's softball team, which won the NEAC North regular season title, kicks off its NEAC postseason title defense with a 10 a.m. game Saturday morning against Penn State-Harrisburg (photo courtesy of Ed Webber, Keuka College Sports Information Department)

2012 NEAC Softball Tournament Bracket

The Keuka College softball team will begin its quest for a sixth straight North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) postseason championship on Saturday, when the Storm (19-11), the No. 1 seed in the North Division after claiming the North’s regular-season title, hosts second-seeded Penn State Harrisburg (19-20) at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

Keuka has won NEAC’s and represented the conference in the annual NCAA Division III regional tournament the last five years, and this year’s squad wants to continue those winning ways.

The Storm boasts six members of the All-NEAC teams and swept the four individual awards in the North. Head coach Jamie Burke was named Coach of the Year for the second straight season, senior Elly Disbrow (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan) shared the North’s Co-Player of the Year honors with SUNYIT’s Lyndsey Brognano, sophomore Danielle Gravel (Sidney, NY/Sidney) earned Keuka’s third consecutive Pitcher of the Year honors while classmate Jessica Bandrowski (Center Moriches, NY/Center Moriches) was named the NEAC North’s inaugural Rookie of the Year.

Disbrow, Gravel, Bandrowski and sophomores Brooke Lovell (Arkport, NY/Arkport) and Jill Hart (Cowlesville, NY/Iroquois) earned first-team All-NEAC while junior Brittany Smyder (Avon, NY/Avon) was named second-team all-conference for the Storm, which hasn’t lost a NEAC game since a 12-1 loss to SUNYIT on April 7, a 12-game winning streak.

Quite the season for Keuka, which graduated four key members of the 2011 squad and lost three members of the NCAA All-Regional team.

“We have a very strong defense with Danielle on the mound, and we definitely support her 100 percent,” said senior Sara James (Wayland, NY/Wayland-Cohocton), a student assistant coach who starred for the Storm for three years before sustaining multiple concussions.

“We’re a good team, and on our good days we’re great. We have a strong offense, a strong defense and we can play with anybody if we come to play.”

Despite entering NEAC tournament play with a modest four-game losing streak, the members of the Green and Gold enter tournament play with momentum on their side. The Storm dropped doubleheaders to regionally-ranked St. John Fisher College and Ithaca College earlier this week, Disbrow said the Storm gained confidence by hanging tough in a 1-0 loss to Fisher and a 5-1 home setback against Ithaca.

“I think we feel really good after the first games that we played against both Ithaca and St. John Fisher,” said Disbrow, who is batting a team-leading .422 with 16 RBI, 29 runs scored and is 15-for-16 on stolen base attempts.

“We feel like we can play with those good teams and our confidence is high. We’re not the team that’s going to have a walk-off home run, but we do the little things that keep us in games and give us the opportunity to win those games. We can move people around the bases and we can play small ball well enough that we give ourselves a chance.”

The Storm will kick-off its NEAC title defense at 10 a.m. Saturday morning as Keuka (19-9, 18-2 NEAC) hosts the six-team, double-elimination NEAC tournament.