Messina, Malcolm Named All-Conference
Seniors Laura Messina and Kat Malcolm were named All-Conference on Wednesday night.
A pair of Central Connecticut softball players were named NEC All-Conference on Wednesday night via a release sent out by the Northeast Conference front office. Senior pitcher Laura Messina was named to the All-Conference First Team and classmate Kat Malcolm was named to the All-Conference Second Team as an outfielder. Messina and Malcolm played instrumental roles in helping the Blue Devils finish the regular season with a 28-12 overall record and 12-4 mark in NEC play, good for a runner-up finish in the league standings and third-straight trip to the NEC Tournament.
Messina makes her fourth appearance in four years on an All-Conference list and her third-straight on the first team. She was named the 2014 Pitcher of the Year and a First Team All-Conference awardee last year and now concludes her tenure at Central as a First Team All-Conference selection this year. The Marlton, NJ product has pitched every inning for the Blue Devils in NEC play and has hurled 223.1 of 274 on the entire season. She sports an impressive 1.13 ERA and is 24-8 in 36 games (32 starts) this year, including 30 complete games and 15 shutouts. Messina has racked up 263 strikeouts, just four away from surpassing the single season school record she set last year, while only issuing 31 walks and has held opponents to a .183 batting average against her.
Malcolm has also been a staple on the All-Conference list in her career, picking up her third plaque as an All-Conference Second Team member this season. She earned NEC Player of the Year and First Team All-Conference honors in 2013 and was an All-Conference First Team member a year ago. This season, the senior outfielder has paced the CCSU offense and finished the regular season batting a team-high .333 with 26 RBI's and 30 runs scored. Malcolm smacked 14 extra-base hits, including a team-best six home runs to record a slugging percentage of .543. She was also successful in 9-of-10 stolen base attempts.
Messina and Malcolm will look to lead the Blue Devils to their second Northeast Conference championship in program history with the beginning of the NEC Softball Tournament tomorrow, May 7 in Moon Township, PA. The Blue Devils are the #2 seed and will face off against the #3 seed, Fairleigh Dickinson, at 2:00 p.m. The game can be viewed live, for free, on NECFrontRow.com.