The Bears Season Comes to a Close
Via St. Josephs College Athletic Department
By Allison Kaspar
On May 9 the Saint Joseph’s College Brooklyn softball team lost their must win match up against Manhattanville College, knocking them out of contention for the Skyline Championship.
Amid a COVID-19 limited season, the Bears were faced with the tough task of securing one of the top four spots to be eligible for the playoff tournament. Unfortunately, the Bears dropped three games to the dominant Manhattanville Valiants—who are currently in second place on the season-ending their 2021 campaign.
Despite the late losses in the season, the Bears put together an impressive overall effort only being swept by the Valiants in their last week of competition. More importantly, the effort of the Bears did not go unnoticed. Three athletes garnered a total of five weekly accolades including reigning Skyline Rookie of the Year, Ashleigh Hartwig, who accumulated “Player of the Week” twice this season.
“It is unfortunate that we had to play every team three times but some teams will not have to complete all conference games to earn a spot in playoffs,” says Hartwig.
As a result of the limited game schedule the Bears are the only team in the Skyline Conference that has played a full schedule. The top four placements are controversial because many of those teams have not played each other, either due to COVID-19 shutdowns or weather cancellations.
Although the Bears lost the chance of a playoff berth, the ways in which the Skyline determined the top four seating is slightly unfair. For example, the Bears sister rivals, the SJC Long Island Golden Eagles have yet to play the Valiants and will not face them until the playoff competition.
Yet, upon analyzing team statistics, the Golden Eagles would most likely drop at least one of three conference games to the Valiants. Thus, the Golden Eagles—who are currently sitting in fourth place—would have a lower overall winning percentage than the Bears, granting the Bears a playoff berth.
Despite this notion, the Skyline Conference can not take all of the blame. The Bears dropped some key games which placed them in a need to win situation against the Valiants. The team split their series with the Golden Eagles, dropped a game to Mount Saint Vincent, and lost one game in the series against College of Mount Saint Mary.
Overall, The Bears wrapped up the 2021 season 17-10 and in fifth place in the Skyline Conference at 12-9. They also finished with the highest winning percentage since they entered the Skyline Conference in 2016, with a total of .571.
“Although we didn’t end the season as we had hoped, I could not be more proud of this group of women… the team’s camaraderie is the best it has ever been and I know they are going to make some noise in the conference next year,” says Bears Head Coach, Danielle Fazzolare.