NEC Release
 
LORETTO, Pa. – Saint Francis softball freshman Hayley Norton (Spring Grove, Pa./Spring Grove) was named NEC Rookie of the Year, announced on Tuesday by the conference. Norton was one of a program-record five Red Flash to earn All-NEC honors by being selected First Team. Joining Norton on the First Team were sophomore Madison Cabell (Ivor, Va./Southampton), junior Ketarah DeVries (Forreston, Ill./Forreston) and sophomore Jordan Seneca (Plum, Pa./Plum). Freshman Kassidy Troxell (Navarre, Ohio/Perry) was named to the Second Team. The group has helped Saint Francis tie a school-record 33 wins, including a program-high 13 in NEC play.
 
Five All-NEC selections is a program record, topping four selections in 2002.

Norton is the second player in program history to win NEC Rookie of the Year, joining Alexis Bower (Cogan Station, Pa./Williamsport Area) in 2014.  Norton is batting .333 this season with 14 home runs and 54 RBI. Norton leads all Division I freshman in RBI and is a finalist for NFCA Rookie of the Year. Norton won six NEC Rookie of the Week awards this year.

The Spring Grove, Pa. native leads SFU with 59 hits, including a team-best 16 doubles and three triples. Norton has an On-Base Percentage of .449 this year to go with a .695 Slugging Percentage. Norton has 17 multi-hit games and 15 multi-RBI games this year.

In NEC play, Norton is tied with teammate Seneca with seven homers to lead the conference. Norton also leads with eight doubles and 19 runs in conference play. 

Seneca leads the Red Flash with 18 homers, 58 RBI and 39 walks, all school single-season records, to go with a .329 average. The sophomore has 51 hits, 51 runs and 10 stolen bases this season.  

The Plum, Pa. native won three NEC Player of the Week awards this year, tied with Mount St. Mary's Rachel Heinze for the most this season, and became the first player in conference history to win NFCA National Player of the Week on April 26 after hitting five homers that week.

The shortstop drove in five RBI in three different games this season, including a two-homer performance at No. 19 Arizona State. That performance included one of two grand slams by Seneca this year.  Seneca has 15 multi-hit games and 16 multi-RBI games this season.

Cabell was tied for second on SFU with a .333 average to go with 13 doubles, 11 homers and 47 RBI. The sophomore has 47 hits and 25 runs this year. 
 
In conference play, Cabell is batting .367 with 18 hits, including four doubles and six homers.  She has driven in 15 runs and scored eight in NEC games.
 
The first baseman has 13 multi-hit games and 11 multi-RBI performances this season.  Cabell's top performances include a two-homer game at Pitt and a grand slam vs. Mount St. Mary's.  Cabell won the NEC Player of the Week award on March 21.
 
Rounding out the first team honorees is DeVries, who is 13-5 with a 2.82 ERA in 31 appearances.  DeVries has thrown eight complete games, including five shutouts.  The Illinois native has 114 strikeouts in 106.2 innings. 
 
DeVries has been even stronger in NEC play, with a 1.75 ERA in 36 innings, covering 10 appearances.  She is 6-1 in NEC starts with two complete-game shutouts and 41 strikeouts.  She won three NEC Pitcher of the Week awards.
 
The junior was a part of two No-Hitters this season.  She pitched the final inning of a combined No-Hitter, with Ethel Santai (Pine Grove, Pa./Pine Grove Area), in a season-opening win at UNC Wilmington.  On March 19, DeVries fired a five-inning No-Hitter against Cornell, allowing just one walk and striking out six.
 
DeVries did not allow an earned run in seven-inning performances against Bucknell, LIU Brooklyn and Marshall.  She also threw six shutout innings vs. UMass.  On the opening weekend of NEC play, DeVries struck out a season-high nine batters against Wagner. 
 
The freshman, Troxell, was selected as the Second Team third baseman with a .317 average.  Among her 46 hits, the rookie has seven doubles and five homers.  Troxell has driven in 19 runs and scored 29.  The Ohio native is 10th in the conference in runs scored. 
 
In conference play, Troxell is batting .318 with two doubles and four homers.  Troxell has scored 12 runs and driven in six in NEC games. 
 
Troxell has eight multi-hit games and three multi-RBI games this season.  She launched a three-run homer and scored three runs against Cornell on March 12 in one of her top performances of the season.  She also went 3-for-3 with a double, a homer, two runs and two RBI vs. Mount St. Mary's on April 24.
 
"It's great to see the respect that the conference coaches have for these players," said Head Coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift. "When a team is successful, individual accolades often follow, and with what this team has done this year, in power numbers alone, is nothing short of amazing. We've been working hard on staying with our processes so that we'll get the outcomes we'd like in the tournament. These five players have obviously been key contributors to a successful season thus far, but they're hungry for more opportunities to help keep us playing!"
 
The Red Flash begins the NEC Tournament on Thursday with a Noon matchup against Robert Morris.  Saint Francis is the No. 2 team in the tournament, hosted by LIU Brooklyn.