The Sacred Heart University's softball team defeated the Farleigh Dickinson Knights on Saturday, April 25 at Pioneer Park on Senior Day. With the double-header sweep, the women's softball team clinched a Northeast Conference playoff berth for the first time in the program's history.

The Pioneers are now 18-26 overall and 11-7 in the NEC. They are going into the tournament as either the third or fourth seed. Long Island University and Robert Morris University are ranked above them.

Both games finished with 9-1 victories for the Pioneers. Sophomore pitcher Jen Russell pitched both games giving up no earned runs in 10 innings and striking out 12 batters.

Russell is now 13-14 with a 1.60 ERA. She has pitched 175 innings and struck out 150 batters this season.

"I knew I was going to be pitching both games so I wanted to make sure that I was mixing pitches really well," said Russell.

Sophomore catcher Shannon McCoy went 3-5 with seven RBIs to lead the team.

"I didn't even know that I had 7 RBIs until after the game," said McCoy. "The only thing I thought of was that I need to drive these girls in."

The Pioneers erupted in the first inning of game one, scoring five runs in the top of the first.

Centerfielder Taylor Froelich led off the game with a double to left-centerfield. She finished 5-8 on the day.

Senior outfielder Jessica Perez singled in Froelich to make the score 1-0. The Pioneers scored four more runs to extend the lead to 5-0.

"As a team we need to realize that it's in our grasp now to do something huge for our team and for the program," said senior infielder Betsy Harvey. "We are a strong team and have the capability to beat any team in the conference on any given day."

The Pioneers extended their lead in the second inning when sophomore infielder Courtney Lee led off with a walk and then stole second base.

Junior outfielder Adrian Fitzsimon singled her in to extend the Pioneer lead to 6-0. Fitzsimon is batting .255 with 15 RBI on the year.

"It was great for our team to get ahead, and it really made us come together as a team," said Lee.

Russell finished with seven strike outs in game one which ended in a mercy rule in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Russell leads the NEC in complete games as she picked up two more on Saturday.

"[Russell] always keeps her composure while she's pitching and has a certain presence about her," said Lee.

In the second game, the Knights struck first with a run in bottom half of the third. The Pioneers retaliated with seven runs in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 7-1.

The Pioneers never looked back as they added two more runs in the fourth with RBI singles from Harvey and Fitzsimon. Harvey went 3-5 on the day with an RBI.

"I felt really relaxed at the plate and I was seeing the ball really well," said Harvey. "I think the whole team came in ready to play and it really showed with our offensive performance."

The Pioneer offense exploded on Saturday, scoring 18 runs in ten innings. As a team, the Pioneers collected 25 hits with 14 hits in the first game and 11 in the second game.

The Pioneers wrap up their regular season against the Seton Hall University Pirates at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28 in South Orange, N.J.

The NEC playoffs begin in two weeks at St. John's University in N.Y.

"I think that we are going to do really well in the tournament especially if we keep playing like we have been," said Lee.