GW softball continued a history-making run in 2022, earning its second straight Atlantic 10 regular season title and securing its third consecutive postseason berth.
Led by All-American Sierra Lange and A-10 Player of the Year Alexa Williams, the Buff and Blue went 36-17, including a 21-3 mark in conference play, before concluding their season at the National Invitational Softball Championship in Fort Collins, Colo.
After a 6-10 start, GW surged down the stretch by winning 27 of 30 to finish the regular season, highlighted by a 13-game winning streak that tied a program record, under A-10 Coach of the Year Chrissy Schoonmaker.
The Buff and Blue finished the regular season ranked among the top 100 nationally in RPI and ended up among the national leaders in a number of statistical categories.
GW was recognized for that memorable run with Lange and Williams pacing a program-record five All-Conference First Team selections.
Lange became the first repeat A-10 Pitcher of the Year in a decade and was ultimately honored on the NFCA All-America Third Team, while Williams landed the A-10 Player of the Year award and a second straight All-Region nod after slashing .366/.416/.671 with a conference-high 55 RBIs and 24 extra-base hits in 50 games.
In recognition of her exemplary work at first base, Alessandra Ponce landed All-Conference and All-Region honors for a fourth time, joining former teammate Jenna Cone on the list of program greats to accomplish that feat.
NO DOUBLE TROUBLE
GW smacked 89 doubles in 53 games, good for an average of 1.68 per contest that ranked eighth nationally. With 17 doubles apiece, Alessandra Ponce and Hannah Eslick tied for the A-10 lead and ranked 16th in the country, and Mia Parker (13), Sierra Lange (12) and Alexa Williams (11) also reached double-digits.
The Buff and Blue were particularly potent in A-10 play, recording 49 doubles in 24 conference regular season games. That total includes three different games in which they notched five doubles - March 16 at SJU, April 23 at URI and May 7 at UMass.
With a first-inning double vs. Saint Louis to begin Senior Weekend, Ponce became the program's all-time leader in the category and ultimately finished with 59.
GREAT GLOVES
GW played spectacular defense throughout the spring en route to a program-record .979 fielding percentage that ranked eighth nationally. The Buff and Blue committed just 29 errors across 53 games for the season to surpass the previous program mark of .977 set last season.
Behind the plate, Valentina Perrone handled 205 chances without an error, establishing a new program best for mistake-free defense, and Maddy Dwyer (1.000 FLD in 66 chances) and Alessandra Ponce (.993 FLD in 275 chances) also cracked the all-time top 10 for a season. Maggie Greco made a difference with a slew of defensive gems at third, as well.
IN THE SWING
GW hit .293 as a team for the season, good for 48th in the nation, while leading the A-10 in scoring (4.98 runs per game), on-base percentage (.370) and slugging percentage (.440). All of those marks rank among the top five in program history.
The top three hitters in the lineup - Sierra Lange, Alessandra Ponce and Alexa Williams - combined for 176 hits, 115 runs and 113 RBIs, and in total, six regulars batted .299 or better, including a breakout effort from Mia Parker, a senior who had 46 hits and 27 RBIs in her first season as an everyday starter.
In a testament to the depth of the order, eight different student-athletes recorded at least eight extra-base hits with Williams (24), Ponce (21), Lange (19), Parker (18) and Eslick (18) in double digits.
QUITE A CAREER
With an All-American final season, Lange firmly established herself among the all-time greats in GW Athletics.
The graduate student from Plano, Texas, went 27-11 on the season to rank tied for sixth in the country in victories and also ranked among the national leaders in innings pitched (230 1/3, sixth), strikeouts (223, 31st) and ERA (2.40, 136th) thanks to her excellence in the circle.
Lange wrapped her career as the program's all-time leader in every major program pitching record, most of them by a wide margin. Her 94 wins are 44 more than second-place Sarah Costlow (2015-18), and she's also on top in strikeouts (785), shutouts (18) and complete games (91).
Offensively, Lange was the A-10 leader in runs (49) and ranked 55th nationally in runs per game (.92). She also finished among the conference leaders in hits (56), OBP (.431), slugging percentage (.512) and extra-base hits (19), and her career-high 19 steals ranked fifth in the conference.
For her career, Lange finished among the program's all-time top five in hits (241, second), batting average (.377, second), runs (169, third), RBIs (126, fourth), extra-base hits (76, fourth) and steals (54, fifth). She tied GW Athletics Hall of Famer Elana Meyers Taylor atop the career triples list by hitting her 15th in the season finale vs. Bowling Green on May 23.
SOPHOMORE SURGE
Alexa Williams followed up an All-Conference rookie season with an even better sophomore campaign en route to A-10 Player of the Year honors. It's the third straight season the Buff and Blue have won the award after back-to-back wins for Jenna Cone to close her decorated career.
Williams finished 17th in the nation in RBIs per game after driving in 55 runs in 50 games (1.10). The sophomore from El Cajon, Calif., led the Buff and Blue with a .366 batting average and landed among the national leaders in runs per game (.86, 83rd), total bases (108, 99th), slugging percentage (.671) and home runs (12, 131st).
With a knack for the dramatic, Williams authored some of the most memorable swings of the season. She cracked grand slams vs. Saint Joseph's (3/16) and Rhode Island (4/23) and secured the A-10 regular season title with a walk-off, three-run homer vs. Saint Louis on April 30. She was named to the All A-10 Championship Team after slugging a home run in an elimination-game win over Dayton and a two-run triple in a victory over Fordham that set up the winner-take-all finale.
After two productive seasons in Buff and Blue, Williams has already cracked the program's all-time top 10 in RBIs with 96 through 98 career games.
TOUGH TO K
Alexa Williams and Sierra Lange both finished among the top five nationally in toughest to strikeout at fourth and fifth, respectively. Williams struck out just four times in 161 at-bats and only twice after March 5, while Lange went down on strikes just five times in 168 ABs.
For the season, GW hitters struck out 178 times (3.3 per game) while the Buff and Blue pitching staff recorded 295 Ks (5.6).
