Softball Looks to Defend AMCC Title

ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend softball team will travel to Buffalo, NY this weekend for their 16^th appearance in the double-elimination Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Tournament hosted by top-seeded D'Youville.

The Lions (23-11, 15-3 AMCC), the defending AMCC Champions, finished the regular season in a three-way tie for first place between the Spartans and Penn State Altoona with a 15-3 conference record. By virtue of the tiebreaker criteria, D'Youville claimed the No. 1 seed, Altoona is No. 2 and Behrend is third.

The third-seeded Lions will battle No. 6 Mt. Aloysius in first-round action on Friday, May 6 at 10 a.m. Second-round action will continue on Saturday, with the finals slated for Sunday, May 8.

The champion will receive the AMCC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Behrend is looking for its seventh conference championship and first back-to-back titles since 2009. During the regular season, Behrend split with Penn State Altoona and fell to D'Youville twice, while sweeping the remaining seven AMCC teams.

The Lions are led by the pitching trio of AJ Nichols (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler), Alexa Bupp (Warren, PA/Warren) and Rachel Miller (North East, PA/North East). Nichols ranks first in the conference with a 1.19 ERA, Bupp is second with a 1.53 ERA and Miller is fifth (2.53).  

Offensively, sophomore Sarah Blagg (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) enters the tournament ranked second in the AMCC in slugging percentage (.664), third in runs (35) and batting average (.421), and fourth in hits (45).