Especially When They Win Back to Back to Back CCC Championships
By Sarah DeWolfe | Staff Writer
The Salve Regina Baseball and Softball teams know a thing or two about diamonds. Not only do they put in work on the big diamond every day in order to dominate in their respective conferences, but they have plenty of smaller, shinier diamonds to show for it.
Both teams are back to back CCC Champions for the 2016 and 2017 seasons (a.k.a two more diamond filled rings to commemorate the occasions) and are looking to add to their collection in 2018 with the possibility of a three-peat.
Photo by Ed Habershaw
The baseball program has a total of nine CCC Championship titles in its history, including four in a row from 1991-1994. Head Coach and former player Eric Cirella -who was inducted into the Salve Regina Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011- has two under his belt entering his fifth year leading the team. Softball has six CCC titles of their own, recording a three-peat in the 1993-1995 seasons. Head Coach Jannelle Iaquinto was able to lead the team to a second consecutive championship last season in her first year on the job.
For Cirella’s baseball team, it will be crucial to build off of the great success they found last season. The team received its first ever national ranking last year, and the hard work certainly paid off for this year’s squad as they earned another rank before even stepping on the field. According to Perfect Game in the preseason, Salve was ranked 22nd in the nation. They had also set a new program record for most wins in a single season with an astounding 36 Ws on their schedule.
Currently, the Seahawks are 16-11 overall and 7-3 in the CCC, where they stand in second place behind a 10-2 Roger Williams University whom they will play this upcoming Sunday in a double header.
Photo by Paul Gusmano
The ladies of the Salve Softball team have brought just as much heat to their own season. Coach Iaquinto was able to effortlessly take over the program in her first year and still coach the team to a second consecutive title. The Seahawks are 5th in the CCC and only one win behind UNE, holding an 11-7 conference record and 14-18 record overall.
Recently, Freshman pitcher Andi Nelson struck out a career high 12 batters and pitched a perfect game to lead the Seahawks to one of two conference victories over Wentworth. The team’s key strengths this season have proven to be their offensive depth and hitting abilities, with six players in double digits for RBIs and a team slugging average of .411.
Both teams have set themselves up for a successful postseason with games still yet to be played in the regular season. The CCC Softball tournament will begin Friday April 27th while the Baseball tournament will commence on Thursday May 3rd. Seedings have yet to be determined, but will be posted shortly on www.cccathletics.com.
