College softball: St. Thomas Aquinas adds ECC title to historic season, eyes NCAA regional
SPARKILL - St. Thomas Aquinas' mascot is the Spartan, but this year, they're more like pioneers.
The Spartans' softball team has taken the program to new heights in a historic season, filled with plenty of accolades, individual and team-wide success, and their first-ever East Coast Conference championship, giving them passageway to their first NCAA Division II Tournament.
"It's been a long journey, when you look back to day one when we started in our indoor facilities in January," Spartans coach Kristen Sullivan said. "Working six days a week, three-hour practices a day, to then when we set out in Florida in March, it all seems like a lifetime ago. It certainly goes fast, but when you look back and look at all the ups and downs and the things we learned from our mistakes, it has all come together and that's really nice to see."
On Saturday, St. Thomas Aquinas won its first East Coast Conference championship, powering past Molloy, 8-3, in the title game.
The Spartans were fueled by three-run home runs by local products DeAnna DeCaro (John Jay-East Fishkill) and Emilie Olivier (Eastchester), and some clutch pitching from ECC Pitcher of the Year and Ketcham alumna Carissa Della Vecchia, who got STAC out of some tough jams with well-timed strikeouts.
"It's been, overall, a great experience, going into when we got co-regular season championships, we locked in going into this tournament," Della Vecchia said. "I said we were winning this tournament, we knew we were the best team out there, and everyone was on the same page. Every game, we took it one at a time, and it's been ready to go."
While STAC has had a few days to digest its big achievement, it is already back to business, as the Spartans prepare for the next leg of their journey.
There will be plenty of time to look back at the memories and accomplishments made, but for now, they're putting the finishing touches ahead of their East Regional matchup with Adelphi on Thursday, at 12 p.m.
While they're already achieved history, they want to push the standard even higher. They're looking to add to their program-best 31-16 season, and they know the road ahead will be challenging.
"We said take it all in, then 24 hours, you reset," Sullivan said. "We can compete in our region. If you look at the teams we can potentially play, we'll have our work cut out for us with Adelphi, they've got a really strong pitcher. If we can get to their pitcher, we can compete with them and the eight teams in our region. It's definitely exciting, and we're definitely the youngest."
STAC has had numerous underclassmen step up in big roles to complement its veteran leaders, like Della Vecchia, and ECC Player of the Year Abbie Landrum.
Sullivan repeated as ECC Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
While their blend of talented youth and grizzled veterans have paved the way to success this season, they aim to raise their game even higher.
Adelphi headlines its four-team quadrant in the East Regionals. Adelphi is ranked No. 13 in NCAA Division II softball nationally. Joining them in the double-elimination tournament scheduled for the weekend is Caldwell (35-17) and Bentley (28-14-1).
The East Regional winner will get an opportunity to advance to next week's Super Regional, and the winner of the Super Regional will battle it out for a national title in Chattanooga, Tenn. on May 25.
But, it'll be one-game-at-a-time until then.
"I've been through a lot of ups and downs with college, so this is the top of the cake," Della Vecchia said. "I'm really happy, proud of myself, and proud of having the best team behind me. In my opinion, it's just the best way to end my career, but it's not done yet.
"I'm really excited, and I know that we're gonna do the best we can do. We're very competitive, and we know Adelphi, and we're gonna do the best we can to compete with them. I'm really excited to go out and see what we can do."
Follow Eugene Rapay on Twitter at @erapay5 and on Instagram at @byeugenerapay.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: College softball: St. Thomas Aquinas' historic year includes ECC title
