The Fairfield University softball team will travel to Manhattan University for a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) doubleheader on April 21, with the first game set to begin at 2 p.m.
Both teams approach the matchup following strong performances over the weekend. Manhattan swept a three-game series against Merrimack College, highlighted by a season-high 19 runs in their final game. Fairfield secured two wins out of three games against Siena University, including an 11-inning victory during Saturday’s doubleheader.
Pitcher Peyton Shields played all 18 innings for Fairfield during their doubleheader sweep, recording a one-hit shutout in the first game and pitching another complete game over 11 innings in the second. Shields allowed just one run and seven hits across both games, improving her season record to 8-7 with a 3.39 earned run average over 99 innings pitched. Alyssa Weinberg leads Fairfield’s pitching staff with eleven wins and one save in 122 innings, striking out an average of eight batters per seven innings.
Freshman Sarah Bielski contributed three of Fairfield’s four runs batted in (RBI) during the sweep of Siena, including driving home both the tying run and game-winner in extra innings. She currently leads her team with a .319 batting average and is among the top five Stags players with seventeen RBI this season. Senior Anna Paravati reclaimed her lead for RBI after collecting two more against Siena for a total of twenty-five this year; Sammie Dougherty follows closely behind with twenty-four RBI and shares the team lead for hits alongside Paravati.
Manhattan holds an overall record of fourteen wins and twenty-eight losses entering Tuesday’s games, along with nine MAAC victories from their last ten contests. The Jaspers have scored forty-seven runs over that span, including two high-scoring games—twelve runs versus Siena and nineteen against Merrimack. Brianna Estevez had five hits and six RBI in Manhattan’s most recent win while raising her batting average to .368 this season. Natalye DeBus leads Manhattan with thirty-two RBI as well as ten doubles and ten home runs.
Following Tuesday’s matchup at Manhattan, Fairfield will return home for another MAAC series hosting Rider University next weekend. The program plans to honor its eight senior and graduate student-athletes prior to Sunday’s single game.
