(Butler, PA) The Butler County Community College softball team will host a squad from the Bronx in a best-of-3 series whose winner will earn a berth in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national championship in Syracuse, N.Y.
The Pioneers (10-4) will face Monroe College-Bronx (24-14) for the NJCAA Division III Northeast District title at Laura J. Doerr Memorial Park, Saxonburg.
Monroe College-Bronx on Tuesday beat Suffolk County Community College, of Selden, N.Y., 5-4 in the deciding game of the best-of-3 NJCAA Division III Region 15 championship. Suffolk County (23-7-1) had been ranked fifth among the 63 programs in Division III.
The Pioneers are the NJCAA Division III Region 20 champions.
Game 1 between BC3 and the Express is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday and Game 2, at 5:30 p.m.
Game 3, if needed, is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday.
Sunday is a rain date.
The NJCAA Division III national softball championship will be held at Carrier Park Field of Dreams, Syracuse, May 25-28.
BC3’s Marissa Melius and Olivia Vissari, each a graduate of Knoch High School, are among the top hitters in the NJCAA Division III. Melius is first with a .647 batting average and Vissari, fifth at .606.
Cinthia Ramirez leads Monroe College-Bronx with a .403 batting average.
Other players on BC3’s squad are Amanda Dailey, Moniteau; Brittney Friters, Karns City; Lauren Hesidenz, Butler; Bailey Rickenbrode, Knoch; Jamie Roberts, Taylor Allderdice; Rebecca Scears, Grove City; Taylor Schultz, Moniteau and Kristen Woolstrum, Cochranton.
Dailey, Hesidenz, Rickenbrode, Vissari and Woolstrum were named to the 2022 Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference all-conference team, and the Pioneers’ Dan Beebe in 2022 was selected as WPCC coach of the year for a third time.
