The Geneseo softball team ended their season with 37 wins and just 13 losses during the 2019 season. After graduating Danni Napoli, Alyssa Persich, Taylor Moore and Jasmine Petrishin, the Knights have four new seniors. Pitcher Ashlyn Kersch, infielder Abbey Whitney, outfielder Hannah Elmer and infielder Brooke Wolff.
Last season, Kersch was named to the National Fastpitch Coach’s Association First Team All-Region Team. Kersch finished the season with an 18-4 record from the circle and batted .381 with four home runs. She was named the NCAA Regional Most Valuable Player after propelling the Knights through the Crestview Hills, Ky. regional with four pitching victories and two home runs. She recorded 36 runs and drove in 33 RBI while recording 51 hits including 11 doubles. She also led the team with a 1.88 ERA, allowing just 38 earned runs over 141.1 innings pitched. Another honor received by Kersch was being named to the 2019 CoSIDA/Google Cloud Academic All-District Softball Team which was announced by College Sports Information Directors of America.
Elmer and Wolff were second-team All-SUNYAC selections in the 2019 season. A highlight game of Elmer’s was versus the SUNY Oswego Lakers. Elmer finished 6-for-7 with five RBI, leading the Knights to a sweep of SUNYAC foe Oswego, defeating the Lakers, 7-5, in game one and earning an 8-0 win in game two.
The Knights’ coaching staff have named Wolff and Whitney the team captains of the upcoming season. “I would say our team is pretty self-sufficient, so there is not a whole lot we have had to do as captains,” Wolff said. “Our senior class is full of a lot of leadership and we try to give the underclassmen as much advice and help as we can, especially when we are scrimmaging or doing game situations.”
Over spring break the team goes to Florida to compete against some out-of-conference competition to get them ready to face SUNYAC teams—they will play a total of 11 games while in Florida. The Knights will face a wide range of competition, including Westminster University, Clarkson University, Tufts University and Scranton College. How tough the games are varies from year to year, but this break the Knights face a balanced schedule.
“Usually, in Florida, we play a few teams that are not that great to get warmed up for the season and then half of the games are competitive against tougher teams. This year, however, we actually have a tough schedule the whole week,” Wolff said. “We are playing a few ranked teams or teams that have gotten votes to be ranked which is pretty exciting. The SUNYAC conference is pretty competitive, so Florida is going to prepare us very well for the rest of our season.”