Carissa Della Vecchia's play over the last week demonstrates why she will be recognized as one of the finest all-around players in the 42-year history of the softball program at St. Thomas Aquinas College when her career ends next month.

 

On Thursday, Della Vecchia became the first pitcher in STAC history to register 500 career strikeouts in a game against Molloy University and she followed that feat on Tuesday by joining the program's acclaimed 100-hit club with an RBI single against Alliance University. 

 

"Carissa's ability to excel at both pitching and hitting is very unusual at this high level of college softball," said STAC Head Coach Kristen Sullivan. "During her three seasons here, she's established herself as one of the premier pitchers in the East Region of the NCAA's Division II circuit while also hitting for power and for average. Most importantly, however, Carissa has been the centerpiece of two of the best teams in college history and she's contributing again this year to a team that has the potential to achieve great things."

 

Della Vecchia, who hails from Wappingers Falls, N.Y., was named first-team All-East Conference Conference in each of the past two seasons and her performance in the circle this season has been exceptional. To date, she's posted a 9-2 record with an impressive earned run average of 1.53 to go with five shutouts and 114 strikeouts in just 73 innings. She leads the conference in ERA and strikeouts and is second in wins. She also threw her second no-hitter as a Spartan in an 8-0 win over Bloomfield College on March 13 on the team's Florida trip. She has been named the ECC Pitcher of the Week twice this season and her win Sunday over Queens was her 38th career victory to move her into second place on the all-time list behind Shannon Massey (1993-97), who won 59 games.

 

On Tuesday, Della Vecchia became the 31st player in program history to reach the elite 100-hit plateau. As evidence of her all-around talents, she was picked by the ECC coaches as the conference's preseason Player of the Year to become the first STAC player to receive that recognition. Interestingly, STAC Head Coach Kristen Sullivan (111) and Missy Sadler (125) are also members of the prestigious fraternity. (Karen Thorne is the all-time hit leader with 188.)

 

Della Vecchia's outstanding two-way play has etched her name 10 times in the program's record book with inevitably more records to be set in the coming weeks.