THE MATCHUP: No. 15 Southern New Hampshire University, the host of the 2015 NCAA East Regional, takes on intracity Saint Anselm College at 2 p.m. at Penmen Field.
ALL-TIME SERIES: SNHU leads, 38-31
LAST MEETING: April 23, 2015 - SNHU 5, Saint Anselm 2
THE PENMEN: Coming off its second consecutive Northeast-10 championship, Southern New Hampshire makes its third NCAA Regional appearance in program history…the Penmen enter the regional with an overall record of 31-6, have won 10 straight games and have the sixth-highest winning percentage (.838) in all of NCAA Division II Softball…Southern New Hampshire boasts the highest fielding percentage in the nation at .983, and the Penmen pitching staff is also fourth in the country with a 1.47 earned run average…senior Ali Maloof (Norwood, Mass.) tossed a pair of complete game victories in the Northeast-10 tournament and is 20-1 this season with 20 complete games and a 1.36 ERA…Maloof ranks among the national leaders in earned run average (No. 18), hits allowed per game (No. 20 - 4.81) and shutouts (No. 20 - 7)…at the plate, Maloof leads Southern New Hampshire with a .427 batting average and a .471 on-base percentage, and she is one of the toughest batters in country to strikeout (No. 15) as she has been retired on strikes just three times in 2015…junior Katie Caruso (Newton, Mass.) was named the Most Valuable Player of the Northeast-10 tournament, and she heads into Friday's game hitting at a .377 clip with four home runs, 29 RBI and 31 runs scored…classmate Mo Hannan (Scarborough, Maine) has been the table setter for the Penmen, as she is batting .411 with 51 hits, 35 runs scored and a .464 OBP in the leadoff spot.
THE HAWKS: Saint Anselm has remained idle since its second round defeat in at the hands of Pace University in the Northeast-10 tournament…junior Pattie Turner (Warwick, R.I.), a Second Team All-NE-10 performer, has been the top offensive threat for the Hawks this season with a .386 batting average and a .596 slugging percentage…freshman Amanda Bickford (Salem, N.H.) has rapped out a team-best 49 hits, including eight doubles and two triples thus far en route to being named to the All-Northeast-10 Third Team…seniors Tayla Trask (Lincoln, Maine) and Paige Cormier (Rochester, N.H.) have been the top two hurlers for Saint Anselm this season, and have led the team to a 2.88 ERA through 34 games…Trask has compiled a 1.80 earned run average and averages 7.1 strikeouts per contest, while Cormier has a 3.38 ERA and has eight wins a save to her credit.
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Friday's 2 p.m. game will advance to play the victor of the 4:30 p.m. contest at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, while the two losing teams will face each other in an elimination game at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
