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Somerset, NJ -- After becoming the first softball team in Northeast Conference (NEC) history to complete an unbeaten regular season in league play, Saint Francis U claimed four major year-end awards, but it was Mount St. Mary’s senior catcher Rachel Heinze (Charlotte Hall, MD/St. Mary’s Ryken) who earned perhaps the biggest individual prize when she was voted the 2017 NEC Softball Player of the Year.
 
Saint Francis U senior Ethel Santai (Pine Grove, PA/Pine Grove Area) was named the NEC Pitcher of the Year, and teammate and fellow hurler Abby Trahan (Kaplan, LA/Kaplan) was voted the NEC Rookie of the Year. The Red Flash’s Kindra Witthus (Hudson, WI/Hudson) earned the NEC Golden Glove Award, while SFU’s Jennifer Patrick-Swift and her assistants earned NEC Coaching Staff of the Year honors. Sacred Heart sophomore pitcher/utility player Kristen McMann (Phoenix, AZ/Mountain Pointe) was named the NEC’s Most Improved Player.

Heinze, the NEC’s Most Improved Player a year ago, followed up her landmark junior season with an equally impressive senior campaign. Heinze established a new NEC single-season record in 2016 with 19 homers, only to follow up with 17 more round trippers this spring. She currently ranks second in the conference in homers, batting average (.407) and RBIs (49), but that’s just the start. Heinze’s .860 slugging percentage leads the league and ranks eighth nationally. She also part of the NEC leaderboard in on-base percentage (.492, second), runs (56, third), hits (61, third), doubles (15, third), walks (24, fourth) and stolen bases (nine, ninth). This marks the second straight first team All-NEC honor for the Charlotte Hall, MD native. She was honored as a utility player last season and for her backstop work this spring. Heinze goes down as the first Mount player to win a major NEC individual honor. 

Headlining Saint Francis U’s major award winners was Santai, who has posted a remarkable 17-1 record and leads the league with 17 wins and 1.64 ERA heading into the NEC Tournament. She also tossed four shutouts, earned a pair of saves and limited opponents to a .215 batting average - the fifth lowest in the league - during the regular season. Santai threw nine complete games and struck out 76 batters over her 127.2 innings. The Pine Grove, PA product was even better in league play where she finished a perfect 8-0 with a 1.19 ERA, and limited batters to a .193 average. Santai, who was named to the NEC All-Tournament team last season and was a four-time NEC Pitcher of the Week, is SFU’s first-ever NEC Pitcher of the Year honoree.
 
Santai wasn’t the only Red Flash player to have tremendous success on the mound, as Trahan’s lights-out performances were a key factor in SFU’s breakthrough season. Trahan was unhittable in league play, posting an NEC-best 0.31 ERA over 22.2 innings pitched while finishing with a 3-0 mark and two saves. She allowed just one earned run, struck out 34 batters and limited NEC opponents to a league-low .105 average. Overall, the Kaplan, LA native has posted a 14-3 record and ranks in the NEC top-five in ERA (2.20), opponent batting average (.201) and strikeouts (93). A five-time NEC Rookie of the Week, Trahan became the third Red Flash player in four years to win the NEC Rookie of the Year Award, joining teammates Hayley Norton (2016) and Alexis Bower (2014).
 
The other half of Saint Francis U’s imposing battery was Witthus, the Red Flash’s first-ever NEC Golden Glove honoree. A premier backstop, Witthus proved nearly impossible to run against with any consistency, gunning down 45.2 percent of would-be base stealers for the season. NEC teams rarely tried testing her, but when they did, the results were disastrous as Witthus threw out five-of-six runners on the year. The All-NEC second teamer did not commit a single error in league play and had just two on the year in posting an NEC-best .992 fielding percentage. Witthus, who hails from Hudson, WI, did not record a single passed ball in 54 games.
 
Patrick-Swift and her staff led Saint Francis U to the program’s first-ever regular-season NEC title and a spot in the conference recordbook after its milestone NEC campaign. The first team to go unbeaten in league play in the 24 years of NEC softball, the Red Flash enter the postseason riding an 18-game win streak and have won 33 of their last 34 outings. SFU’s 45 wins on the year established a new school record and are just two shy of the NEC mark established by UMBC back in 2002. Under Patrick-Swift’s leadership, the Red Flash rank seventh in the nation in wins and ninth in win percentage (.833), and are also among the top-25 in scoring (6.11/game), home runs (1.09), on-base percentage (.395), slugging percentage (.487), ERA (1.98) and stolen bases per game (1.83). Hosting the NEC Tournament for the first time, the Red Flash have lost just one contest at home on the year.
 
In elevating her play this past season, McCann not only picked up the NEC Most Improved Player honor, but was also named second team All-NEC as both a pitcher and utility player. After finishing 0-2 with a 7.64 ERA in 2016, she went 5-3 with a 1.27 ERA in league play during the regular season. She struck out 54 batters in 55.1 innings and allowed just 32 hits in helping lead Sacred Heart to the second seed in this week’s NEC Tournament.  McCann, who won eight games in total on the year, ranks fifth in the NEC in ERA (2.47), and third in strikeouts (110) and opponent batting average (.210). McCann also hit .278 on the year against conference opposition.
 
AWARD WINNER HIGHLIGHTS
 
Saint Francis U landed nine players on All-NEC teams, the most since CCSU earned nine all-star nods back in 2013.
 
Saint Francis U became the first team since LIU Brooklyn in 2008 to have two pitchers earn first team All-NEC recognition.
 
Following a banner regular season, Saint Francis U’s slugging junior shortstop Jordan Seneca (Plum, PA/Plum) was voted to the All-NEC first team for the second straight year. The six-time NEC Player of the Week set a new NEC single-season home run record with 21 blasts, good for third in the country. Her 63 RBIs leads the NEC and ranks seventh in DI. Seneca also sits among NEC leaders in slugging percentage (.755, second), runs scored (59, second) and on-base percentage (.470, fifth).
 
Three freshman collected second team All-NEC honors, including a pair from Wagner. The Seahawks’ Amelia Van Orman (Orange, CA/Lutheran High School of Orange County) was recognized at first base and Zoe Bender (Glen Rock, NJ/Glen Rock) in the outfield. LIU Brooklyn outfielder Angie Rizzi (Tuckahoe, NY/Ursuline) was the third first-year player honored.
 
LIU Brooklyn junior outfielder Victoria Zamora (Orange, CA/El Modena) and Saint Francis U junior first baseman Madison Cabell (Ivor, VA/Southampton) earned spots on All-NEC teams for the third time in their respective careers. Cabell collected her third straight first team nod, while Zamora made it back-to-back first team appearances.
 
Wagner senior outfielder Brianna Tredway (Downington, PA/Downington West) and sophomore second baseman Karen Prihoda (Hamilton Square, NJ/The Lawrenceville School) were both named to the All-NEC first team. They rank first (.402) and third (.399), respectively, in the NEC in hitting.
 
Sacred Heart senior pitcher Jamie Carlson (Corona, CA/Corona) was tabbed to the All-NEC second team. Her 157 strikeouts led the NEC by a wide margin. She ended the regular season with 12 wins and a 2.09 ERA.
 
Slick fielding CCSU junior shortstop Alexis Debrosse (New Bedford, MA/New Bedford) committed just five errors on the year in posting an NEC-best .964 field percentage at her position. She also paced the Blue Devils with six homers.
 
NEC Player of the Year Rachel Heinze (Charlotte Hall, MD/St. Mary’s Ryken) isn’t the only NEC all-star in the family. Her cousin Lindsay Heinze (Charlotte Hall, MD/St. Mary’s Ryken) earned All-NEC first team honors at third base.
 
Saint Francis U sophomore outfielder Hayley Norton (Spring Grove, PA/Spring Grove), the 2016 NEC Rookie of the Year, took home her second straight All-NEC honor with her selection to the second team. Norton has hit 11 round-trippers this season after swatting 15 as a freshman.
 
About The Northeast Conference
Now in its 36th year, the Northeast Conference is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of 10 institutions of higher learning located throughout six states. Media coverage of the NEC extends to four of the largest markets in the United States - New York (#1), Pittsburgh (#22), Baltimore (#26), and Hartford/New Haven (#30).  Founded in 1981 as the basketball-only ECAC Metro Conference, the NEC has grown to sponsor 22 championship sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 14 different NCAA Championships. NEC member institutions include Bryant, Central Connecticut, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Brooklyn, Mount St. Mary’s, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, St. Francis Brooklyn, Saint Francis U and Wagner. For more information on the NEC, visit the league’s official website (www.northeastconference.org) and digital network (www.necfrontrow.com), or follow the league on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat, all @NECsports.