Women's Softball
Softball: Denison advances to NCAA Division III Championship
Date: May 5, 2008
Location: GRANVILLE
More Information
After winning the NCAC Tournament, Denison's senior class will be making their second trip to the 2008 NCAA Division III Championship.
The Denison softball team will travel to Glassboro, N.J and take on Rowan University at 12 p.m. on Thursday (May 8) to open play at the 2008 NCAA Division III Softball Championships.
Denison advanced to their fourth NCAA D-III Championship by going 3-0 at the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament in Meadville, Pa. Denison, who entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed, defeated Ohio Wesleyan in the first round and Hiram in the semifinals and again in the finals to lock up the automatic bid.
Denison enters the seven-team regional as the No. 6 seed. The top-seed and a bye into the second round was awarded to Muskingum College. The other five teams taking the field at Rowan University's softball complex will be No. 2 Mount Union, No. 3 Rowan, No. 4 Kean, No. 5 Western Conn. St. and No. 7 Hunter.
The Big Red is led by a veteran corps of six seniors who have won 109 games, two NCAC Tournament Championships and two NCAC regular season crowns. Denison's last trip to the NCAA Tournament came in 2006 where the defeated Thomas More, 4-1 but suffered narrow losses to Roanoke and Peidmont. Denison's two other NCAA appearances came in 2001 and 2002. Overall the Big Red is 4-7 in NCAA Tournament play.
The Big Red will enter the regional with a 25-10 record. This is the eighth time out of the last nine seasons that a Denison softball team has won at least 24 games. Senior pitcher Bri Scrofano (Longs, S.C./McDowell) is the ace of the pitching staff at 15-4. Her 1.72 ERA leads the team and she has struck out 82 batters in 122.1 innings pitched. Scrofano is the program's all-time leader in starts and is second in wins, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched and strikeouts.
Sophomore catcher Brie Berkopec (Mars, Pa./Mars) has had an outstanding season in her first year as a starter. She leads the team with a .398 batting average and has driven in a team-high 36 runs off nine doubles and six home runs. Sophomore Alex Murray (Mayfield Heights, Ohio/NDCL) has hit seven home runs is is hitting .354. The team has blasted a single-season record 24 home runs in 2008. The previous single-season team high was 11, set last season.