United States Coast Guard Academy - Department of Athletics - Softball

NEW LONDON, CONN.--(3/24/10)--The Coast Guard Academy softball team debuted as the #1 team in the first New England Intercollegiate Softball Coaches Association (NEISCA) Division III Poll of the season, yet dropped two spots in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) poll to #21, despite winning all four games last week.

The Bears, who won a school-record 39 games last season and made the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance, went 5-3 at the Rebel Games in Kissimmee, Fla. to start the season and then won their first four northern games of the season last week.

Sophomore Hayley Feindel was named the NEISCA pitcher of the week after earning New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Pitcher of the Week honors earlier this week.

Feindel, the 2009 NEWMAC Pitcher of the Year, was the winning pitcher in all four of the Bears games this week. She was 4-0 with a 0.84 ERA and fired a no-hitter vs. Castleton State on Saturday with 13 strikeouts in the first game of a doubleheader.

On Sunday, in the NEWMAC opener, she snapped Wheaton’s 10-game winning streak with a pair of wins, including a 2-0 shutout.

Feindel, pitched 25 innings, allowed 16 hits, walked four and fanned 36 in the four games with two shutouts as the Bears improved to 9-3 overall.