Riverdale, N.Y. – The College of Mount Saint Vincent Softball team will open play in the 2015 Skyline Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon against the second seeded Farmingdale State Rams. The Dolphins and Rams are set to get underway at 3:00 p.m. on the campus of Mount Saint Mary College.
 
History
Mount Saint Vincent makes it second straight conference tournament appearance on Friday and its third appearance in the event since the start of the 2004 season. The Mount holds a 1-3 all-time record in the league tournament, picking up its first ever win in the event last season with a 3-1 win over Sage in its tournament opener.
 
Kathleen Davis (Beacon, N.Y.) earned the win in the circle for the Dolphins after working 4.0 innings and allowing a single run and striking out five. Mackenzie Heizer (Vacaville, Calif.) came on to earn the save with 3.0 shutout innings of relief and struck out five.
 
A Look At The Dolphins
Mount Saint Vincent enters play on Friday at 14-18 overall and finished the conference schedule with a 10-4 mark. The Dolphins split each conference doubleheader with the other three teams in the tournament and closed the regular season with four wins in their final five outings.
 
Freshman Rachel Hezier (Vacaville, Calif.) burst on to the scene in 2015 and enters Friday's game as the team leader in batting average (.418), hits (41), runs (32), doubles (17), home runs (6), total bases (76) and slugging percentage (.776) and sits second in RBI with 29. She was named the Skyline Conference Rookie of the Week three times in 2015.
 
Rachel Heizer is one of four players to hold a batting average over .300 entering the conference tournament. Mackenzie Heizer is hitting .337 and is the team leader with 33 RBI while sitting second on the squad with 15 doubles. Kathryn Dalton (Northampton, Pa.) is hitting .327 in 30 games for the Dolphins and Kierstyn Bourdeau (Cheshire, Conn.) holds a .320 average and has driven in 25 runs.
 
Mackenzie Heizer leads the pitching staff with a 9-6 record in 20 appearances. She has worked a team-high 91.0 innings and has fanned 116. Opponents are hitting.257 against her and she has produced a 4.00 earned run average during the regular season.
 
Mount Saint Vincent is hitting .277 as a team heading into Friday's tilt and has recorded 64 extra base hits and 138 RBI. The pitching staff holds a 4.31 earned run average and has struck out 214 batters in 200.0 innings of work.
 
Scouting Farmingdale State
The Rams rounded out the regular season with an 18-12 overall record and an identical 10-4 league mark as the Mount. Farmingdale State won five of its final six regular season contests, with the lone loss coming in a 10-2 defeat to Mount Saint Mary in the backend of a conference doubleheader.
 
Michelle Mongiello leads the offensive attack with a .467 batting average (42-for-90) and has recorded 15 doubles and 29 RBI heading into Friday's contest. She holds a .505 on-base percentage for the Rams. Andrea Klarman is hitting .458 (27-for-59) with seven home runs, 24 runs scored, 25 RBI and a .522 on-base percentage. Meaghan Anderson rounds out a trio of Rams hitting better than .400 with a .416 average (37-for-89), 10 extra base hits, 27 runs and a .465 on-base percentage.
 
The Farmingdale State pitching staff is anchored by Taylor Tedeschi who holds a 9-7 record in 20 appearances. She has worked a team-high 96.1 innings and has fanned 50 batters while posting a 4.29 earned run average. Taylor Webb is 6-3 on the year for the Rams, posting a 3.32 earned run average and 51 strikeouts in 65.1 innings pitched.
 
The Series
Since the start of the 2014 season, Mount Saint Vincent is 2-23 against Farmingdale State overall and 0-1 against the Rams in the Skyline Conference Tournament. The Dolphins split a doubleheader with the Rams in 2004 and did not win a game against Farmingdale State until winning 5-4 in game one on March 11, 2015. The victory snapped a 21 game losing streak to the Rams.
 
What's Next
The winner of the Mount Saint Vincent and Farmingdale State game will take on the winner of the Mount Saint Mary and Sage contest at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. The losers of each game will hook up at 1:00 p.m.

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