Softball Sets Sights on Playoff Berth The Falcons made great strides last season, improving on a two-win 2007 campaign to finish with a record of 20-24.
Fourth-year head coach Michele DeGregorio returns 11 players, including a quartet of senior captains: shortstop Alex Hitchcock (Abington, Mass.), outfielders Dina Ferriero (Tewksbury, Mass.) and Ashley DeRosa (Wethersfield, Conn.), and catcher Jenna Crowell (Kennebunk, Maine).
Hitchcock ranks as one of the premiere players in the program’s history [see story below]. Like her, the other three captains have been starters since freshman year. Ferriero owns a .256 career average, DeRosa drove in 19 runs last spring, and Crowell is solid behind the plate. Also returning, at second base, is sophomore Christine D’Amico (Shrewsbury, Mass.); she earned third team All-Conference honors and set a school record with a 21-game hitting streak.
Pitching is key to success in softball, and the Bentley staff is expected to be led by junior Ashley Messina (Hanover, Mass.). She finished last season with a 6-9 record and led Division II in fewest walks, with only three in 128.1 innings. Richard Lipe ‘77
The Bentley men’s lacrosse team has reached the Northeast- 10 playoffs in seven of the past of nine years, and advanced to the semifinals three times. The challenge has been breaking through to the championship game, after three NE- 10 Tournament wins in the 1990s (’94, ’95, ’98).
Head coach Jim Murphy, now in his 16th season, returns 36 players from last year’s squad, which finished 7-7 ( 5-5 in the NE- 10). Returnees include nine of the team’s top 10 scorers, among them, senior attacker Andy Curtis (Chelmsford, Mass.) whose 3. 29 points per game ranked seventh in the NE- 10. Juniors Kevin Gould (Duxbury, Mass.), Wyatt Couture (South Hadley, Mass.) and Brad Tunis (Sudbury, Mass.), with 23, 13 and 12 goals, respectively, should also help make Bentley one of the most potent offenses in the conference.
Two-year starter senior Kris Dambach (Chester, N.J.) returns for another season in goal. He’ll play behind a defense that, last season, yielded the fourth fewest goals ( 7.71) in the conference and is led by standout Matt Allen (Cape Elizabeth, Maine). The junior was named to the NE- 10 second team in 2008 after leading the team with 25 forced turnovers. Kyle Mack
Many Falcons embody the term “scholar athlete,” but few do it better than Alex Hitchcock ’09, a shortstop on the softball team. The Corporate Finance and Accounting major has earned President’s List honors in the classroom. She is also a two-time selection to the Northeast- 10 All-Academic Team and a 2008 ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District second team selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Hitchcock (Abington, Mass.) is just as impressive on the field at Bentley. Last season, she became the first Falcon infielder in 25 years to earn first team All-Conference accolades, after leading the team in batting average (.348) and hits (47). A career .320 hitter, Hitchcock is just 24 hits shy of the all-time Bentley record (147) set by Lauren Frasier ’04. She begins the season in the university’s career top 10 for runs batted in (50), doubles (23) and total bases (162).
This season finds Hitchcock focused on the one goal she has yet to accomplish here: making the NE- 10 playoffs. The centerpiece of a team that returns 11 players, including three top hitters and one key pitcher, she believes the goal is well within reach.
“All of us, and especially the seniors, feel an added pressure to make the playoffs this year,” says Hitchcock. “After everything we’ve been through, including a 2-40 season my sophomore year, we have a lot to prove.”
Hitchcock also has one eye on life after graduation. In September, she begins work as an auditor at Vitale, Caturano & Company, a top accounting firm based in Charlestown, Mass. This summer, she will take courses toward the Master of Science in Accountancy at Bentley.
But professional life can wait for now. “I want to be able to leave Bentley saying we made the NE- 10 playoffs,” she says of the pressing business that awaits on the field. Kyle Mack
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