Newburgh, N.Y. – Seeking its fourth straight Skyline Conference title, the Mount Saint Mary College Softball team will begin play in the 2019 Skyline Conference Championship on Wednesday in a single elimination contest with sixth seeded Sarah Lawrence. First pitch on campus in Newburgh is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. with Live Stats available for those who cannot attend the contest.
 
At A Glance: The Mount finished the regular season 2-5-1 over its final eight contests, including a split with the Gryphons, and enter Wednesday's tilt with a 13-20-1 overall record on the season.
 
Junior Emily Lang (Westtown, N.Y.) leads the Mount's offensive attack with a .364 batting average and an .891 OPS. Lang has eight extra base hits on the season, ripping five doubles, a triple and two home runs, and is the team leader in RBI with 17. Lang has worked eight walks through the regular season and holds a .486 slugging percentage and a .405 on-base percentage.
 
Senior Nicolette Moustouka (Seaford, N.Y.) checks in with a .293 batting average for the Knights and leads the team with 18 walks. Moustouka holds a .430 on-base percentage and has scored 12 runs while driving in seven.
 
Fellow senior Amanda Almodovar (Goshen, N.Y.) paces the Knights in runs scored with 20 and is perfect 16-for-16 in stolen base attempts on the season. She is hitting .278 in a team-high 115 at-bats to go along with seven walks and six RBI.
 
Sophomore Morgan O'Neill (Little Falls, N.J.) is second on the team with 14 RBI with Lauren Oury (Bethpage, N.Y.) tied for the team lead in home runs with two while driving in 10 runs. Alyssa Hernandez (Middletown, N.Y.) has driven in 11 runs for the Knights and has scored 12 times entering Wednesday's tilt.
 
Junior Bridget Bennett (Gardiner, N.Y.) leads the pitching staff with six wins on the season, working nine complete games and spinning three shutouts. She has worked 82.0 innings on the season and struck out 58 to go along with a .231 opponent's batting average. O'Neill has won four games for the Knights and fanned 36 in 57.2 innings of work.
 
Mount Saint Mary enters Wednesday's contest eighth in the league in team batting, but third in the conference in team pitching. Individually, Lang and Oury are tied for third in the league in home runs and Moustouka is second in the league in walks.
 
Last Time Out: The Mount closed the regular season on Saturday with a split with regular season champion Farmingdale State. The Knights saw the Rams rally in the seventh for a 3-2 game one win, but bounced back with an 8-3 triumph in game two.
 
Oury clubbed her first home run of the season to account for the Mount's only scoring of the opener with Almodovar adding a hit and a stolen base for the Knights.
 
Farmingdale State did all of its scoring in the seventh, plating three runs on three hits. Jessica Lombardo tied the score with a double to right center with Julianna Prescia delivering Jessica Clark with a run scoring groundout to push the Rams in front for good.
 
Bennett suffered the complete game loss, striking out two with Maddy Smith scoring the win for the Rams with four strikeouts in a complete game effort.
 
In game two, the Mount belted three home runs and used a three-run fourth and three-run fifth to pull away for the win. Hernandez pushed the Mount in front with a two-run blast in the fourth with Oury adding a solo shot in the fifth.
 
Nine different Knights had a hit in the game with five players posting a pair of safeties. Hernandez finished with two hits, two runs and two RBI with Bennett adding two hits and two runs and Oury scoring twice.
 
O'Neill earned the win with 5.1 solid innings in the circle with MacKenzie Hymes (Middletown, Del.) coming on to work the final 1.2 innings. Jaxie Collard suffered the loss for Farmingdale State after allowing five runs on eight hits in 4.0 innings.
 
Scouting Sarah Lawrence: The Gryphons scored a program record 17^th win and clinched a spot in the Skyline Conference Championship for the first time in program history with a sweep of Old Westbury on Saturday. Sarah Lawrence scored 4-3 and 8-0 wins to improve to 17-16 on the season.
 
Hannah Akin leads the offensive attack for the Gryphons with a .455 batting average and a 1.041 OPS. She has 46 base hits, including 11 doubles, to go along with 26 runs scored and 21 RBI. Akin holds a .564 slugging percentage and a .477 on-base percentage.
 
Tiffany McBrayer is tied with Akin for the team lead in runs with 26 and is hitting an even .400 on the year with five doubles, a triple and 15 RBI. Karissa McAuley is tied for the team lead in RBI with 21 and checks in with a .372 batting average and 10 runs scored.
 
Four pitchers have seen time in the circle for the Geyphons with McAuley posting an 8-6 record with a 3.56 earned run average. She was worked 11 complete games and struck out 60 in 94.1 innings of action. Opponents are hitting .316 off of her over 19 appearances. Bailey Nguyen has fanned 80 hitters in 60 innings pitched and holds a 3.85 ERA and a 6-4 record.
 
Sarah Lawrence enters the championship leading the conference in team batting and is sixth in team pitching. Akin is third in the conference in batting average and hits and is tied for seventh in the league, with McBrayer, in runs scored.
 
Regular Season Set: The two teams squared off on April 18 with the Knight scoring a 6-1 game one win with the Gryphons responding with an 8-2 game two triumph.
 
In game one, Bennett fanned five and allowed one unearned run on six hits, besting McAuley who surrendered four earned runs on nine hits in 6.0 innings pitched.
 
Jillian Picarillo (Troy, N.Y.) produced two hits and drove in two with Erin McCann (East Haven, Conn.) going 1-for-2 with two runs and an RBI.
 
In game two, Sarah Lawrence plated five runs in the top of the first and outhit the Knights 9-4 on its way to the win. Nguyen struck out 10 and allowed two runs on four hits in the complete game, while Christen Hansen (Cypress, Claif.) suffered the loss with four runs allowed in 0.1 innings.
 
Lang and Hernandez each finished with a hit and an RBI for the Knights, with Mackenzie Mindish finishing the win for Sarah Lawrence 2-for-4 with two doubles, two runs and a pair of RBI.
 
Series History: Since Sarah Lawrence joined the conference for the 2014-15 academic year, the two sides have met 10 times with the Knights holding a 9-1 record and 12 times overall with the Mount holding an 11-1 mark. The Mount had won 11 straight contests until the Gryphons' game two win in 2019.
 
What's At Stake: The winner of Wednesday's contest will advance to the double elimination portion of the tournament and will tussle with St. Joseph's-L.I. on Friday at 4:00 p.m. on the campus of Farmingdale State.