(Canton, N.Y.)- Eighth-year head coach Diane Para has been named the Sunrise Conference Coach of the Year and freshman pitcher Tina DeLuca (Fresh Meadows, N.Y.) earned Rookie of the Year honors in softball.
Para guided the Roos to both the regular season and conference tournament championships and a 13-6 overall record. The Roos will now play against the winner of the Gulf Coast Conference on May 6 in Charleston, West Virginia for a berth in the NAIA national tournament. Para and assistant coach Pat Martin have been diligently rebuilding the softball program, which has not had a season in two years.
Tina DeLuca (Fresh Meadows, N.Y.) led the conference in both earned-run average (4.17) and walks allowed (9) and was third in opponents batting average (.334) and fourth in total strikeouts (34) and innings pitched (85.2). She also batted .288 with 13 RBIs.
The Roos won another team award as they were given the Team Sportsmanship Award by the conference softball coaches.
DeLuca was also selected to the all-conference team and was joined by juniors
Carolina Olivares (Adelanto, Calif.) and
Jenifer Shaw (Helendale, Calif.) and freshmen
Heather Lottie (Canton, N.Y.) and
Vickie Lynch (Howard Beach, N.Y.).
Olivares led the conference in batting (.525), was tied for second in triples (2), third in slugging percentage (.803) and RBIs (27), tied for seventh in total hits (32) and doubles (7) and eighth in runs scored (22). Lottie was second in batting behind Olivares at .478. She was also fourth in RBIs (23), fifth in slugging percentage (.657), sixth in runs scored (27), tied for seventh in hits (32), and tied for ninth in doubles (6). Shaw was tied for third in doubles (10), fourth in slugging percentage (.672), seventh in batting (.422), ninth in runs (21), tied for 10th in hits (27), and 11th in RBIs (17). Lynch was seventh in slugging percentage (.579) and RBIs (21), tied for seventh in doubles (7) and eighth in batting (.404).