Sparkill, N.Y. - The five days from March 23 to March 27 might have been most amazing moments in Kristen Sullivan’s celebrated coaching career.
After winning just four of its first 13 games, including a disappointing 2-7 record in Florida, Sullivan didn’t know how things could get much worse. On March 22, it got worse.
In a non-conference doubleheader against Adelphi University, STAC didn’t register a hit in the two games. In fact, no batter reached first base safely in back-to-back perfect games by Adelphi pitchers.
“In all of my years playing and coaching softball, I’ve never heard of perfect games pitched in both games of a doubleheader,” said Sullivan.
Remarkably, Sullivan pulled her team together and the Lady Spartans mounted an unlikely rally. Over the next five days, STAC swept highly regarded University of Bridgeport and Caldwell University to save its season. Six weeks later, STAC won its first regular-season East Coast Conference title and broke the program’s 42-year record for most single-season wins with a 27-19 mark.
For Sullivan’s incredible work, she’s been named the ECC Coach of the Year. It’s her second Coach of the Year award of her career.
“Kristen displayed great leadership on and off the field this season,” said Nicole Ryan, STACs Director of Athletics. “Winning at this level is very difficult and Kristen was able to overcome a slow start to record the most successful season in program history. The players kept working and never lost faith and that’s a credit to Kristen.”
Sullivan’s 2022 success exhibited many of the strengths – pitching, recruiting and game management -- that have helped her turn around the program, which she took over in 2015 after the team finished 2-36 in 2014.
A former star pitcher at STAC and accomplished private pitching instructor, Sullivan molded Carissa Della Vecchia and freshman Abbie Landrum into the conference’s best mound staff. Her three top recruits – transfer student Emilie Olivier, Abbie Landrum and Amanda Demmerle – made immediate contributions with the bat and in the field and all earned all-conference honors.
On the field, Sullivan shuffled her batting lineups regularly to optimize a team that didn’t have the speed and home run power of other ECC clubs. Defensively, Sullivan was forced to alter the infield alignment when returning starting shortstop Nikki MacDonald injured her knee and missed four weeks of action.
“This was an overachieving team,” said Sullivan, whose team was picked to finish third in the preseason ECC coaches poll. “Our pitching evolved into something very special, but I’d say that our offense was opportunistic and our defense was steady. I’m most proud of the way that the girls never quit and remained committed to our plan.”
STAC’s 19-5 conference record represents the most single-season ECC wins since joining the NCAA in 2001. The Lady Spartans are currently ranked ninth in the NCAA Division II’s East Region weekly poll, which includes 34 teams from three conferences -- ECC, Northeast 10 and Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference – and eight states.