Clements, Schaffer, Bishop Claim NECC Major Awards; Softball Earns Four All-NECC Nods

MARSHFIELD, Mass.- The Eastern Nazarene College softball team garnered four All-New England Collegiate Conference selections, announced the league office Monday. Lauren Clements (Garrison, Texas) was tabbed the NECC Player of the Year while Elisabeth Schaffer (Benton, Pa.) was named the NECC Pitcher of the Year and fourth-year head coach Dani Bishop was voted the NECC Coach of the Year.

Kori Bow (Shaftsbury, Vt.), Clements, and Schaffer picked up All-NECC first team accolades while Kiley Ozaki (Ewa Beach, Hawaii) earned All-NECC third team honors. Senior Kelly Donahue (Quincy, Mass.) was tabbed to the NECC Del Malloy Sportsmanship Team.

Clements claimed her second-straight Player of the Year award after being named the Commonwealth Coast Conference Player of the Year last spring. She leads the league with nine home runs while pacing the Lions with a .471 batting average and an .837 slugging percentage. Clements has notched 37 RBIs, 17 runs scored, and 49 hits on the year. Defensively, she compiled a fielding percentage of 1.000 with two runners caught stealing.

In conference play, Clements has registered 25 hits and driven in 19 RBIs. She batted .521 to go with an .896 slugging percentage and a .545 on-base percentage in league action.

Schaffer repeated as Pitcher of the Year after earning Commonwealth Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year honors last season. She posted an impressive 20-4 record in the pitcher's circle on the year with 22 complete games in 22 starts. Schaffer hurled 148.1 innings on the season and racked up 217 strikeouts to lead the league and rank third nationally. She paces NCAA Division III with 13 shutouts to her credit while ranking fifth in the country with 10.2 strikeouts-per-seven-innings.

In league action, Schaffer compiled a microscopic earned-run average of 0.51 along with a 12-1 record in 12 starts. A six-time NECC Pitcher of the Week, she worked 82.2 innings in conference games and fanned 124 batters.

Bow owns a career-best .347 batting average and has tallied 33 hits with 20 runs scored and 15 RBIs. In league action, she hit .480 with 24 base knocks and 14 RBIs.

Ozaki ranks second on the squad with a .400 batting average while recording 34 hits 20 RBIs and 19 runs in her first collegiate campaign.

Bishop is in her fourth season at the helm of the Lions' softball program and has guided Eastern Nazarene to three postseason appearances including a playoff berth in each of the past two seasons. She was tabbed the Commonwealth Coast Conference Co-Coach of the Year last spring.

Eastern Nazarene boasts a 24-12 overall record and finished the regular season with a 14-2 mark in the New England Collegiate Conference. The Lions captured the No. 1 seed in the NECC Tournament and will host postseason games May 2, 4, and 5.