New York, NY – For the second straight year, The Sage College's softball team has produced the Skyline Conference Softball Player of the Year as senior short stop Hillary Faas (East Greenbush, NY/Columbia) has been tapped for the honor.
Named to the First Team from Sage were Faas and sophomore designate player Katie Kovage (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls Central), while junior utility player Kristen Beikirch (Brockport, NY/Brockport) was named to the Second Team.
Faas batted .476 thus far on the season with an impressive list of accomplishments. Twice named the Skyline Conference Player of the Week, she was also cited as the ECAC Metro Division III Player of the Week as well. She led the Gators in almost every offensive category as she had 60 hits with 45 RBI's and six home runs. She also connected for 12 doubles with two triples and had a .746 slugging percentage on the year, while drawing a team-high 14 walks.
In addition to helping the Gators this season, she has single-handedly rewritten the Gator career record book as well. Having played in a record 150 games with 150 starts, she holds career marks for most at-bats (495), most doubles (44), most home runs (20), most hits (193), and most RBI's (130). She stands No. 2 in career runs scored (122), while ranking No. 3 in walks (50), No. 11 in stolen bases (15), and No. 10 in career batting average (.390).
With the release of the latest NCAA statistics for Division III, Faas is ranked No. 20 in RBI's per game (1.25), No. 41 in batting average, No. 79 in slugging percentage, No. 63 in on-base percentage (.525), while also ranking in home runs, home runs per game, doubles per game, and runs scored per game.
Kovage, who pitched and batted and put up some impressive numbers as well. She leads the Gators with her 11-7 record and sports a 3.85 ERA in 94.2 innings of work with 74 strikeouts. She added a .392 batting average, second amongst the 2014 Gators with 38 RBI's, nine doubles and four home runs. She had a .567 slugging percentage as well with 47 hits in 36 games started. She is currently No. 9 all-time in the Sage career pitching record book in appearances (43), while ranking No. 11 in innings pitched (196.1), No 13 in complete games (19), No. 5 in victories (21), and No. 5 in strikeouts (135). She owns a 2.92 career ERA in her two seasons with the program.
Kovage is also ranked in the latest NCAA statistical ranking as she is No. 76 in RBI's per game (1.06), while also ranking in wins, strikeouts per seven innings and strikeouts.
Beikirch, who was the 2013 Skyline Conference Player of the Year and the 2012 Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year, was placed on the Second Team. She batted .383 this spring with a team-best 43 runs scored and is 20-20 on stolen bases. She leads the team with 13 doubles in 36 starts and has played at first and third base, while also working behind the plate as a catcher. On her career, Beikirch owns several career marks as well. Among them, she is the program's career stolen base leader with 53, while also leading the Gators with her 128 runs scored. She stands No. 9 in career games played (123), No. 2 in at-bats (415), No. 2 in hits (175), No. 4 in doubles (29), No. 8 in triples (7), No. 3 in home runs (14), and No. 5 in RBI's (71). She owns a .422 career batting average as well in her time as a Gator.
Beikirch is also ranked in doubles per game (No. 111 with 0.36), while standing at No. 33 in runs scored per game (1.19) and stolen bases (No. 52).
Sage stands at 23-13 on the year having finished as the Skyline Conference Tournament Runners-up. The Gators won the 2014 Skyline Conference regular-season title and earned the No. 1 seed after producing a 10-4 record in league play.
The Gators are awaiting news of a possible ECAC Metro Tournament bid after having earned bids in both 2012 and 2013.