Lydia DeFazio took the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference by storm last softball season.
After her breakthrough year, Mt. Aloysius can’t hide its secret weapon any more.
DeFazio, a junior who has played first base and catcher at the college level, was tabbed the AMCC Preseason Player of the Year, and the Mounties are favored to three-peat as conference champions.
A Penn-Trafford graduate, DeFazio is the reining AMCC Player of the Year. She led the conference in batting average (.586) and reached base every two out of three at-bats in AMCC play.
Overall, she batted .479 with nine home runs, 44 runs batted in and carried a .557 on-base percentage.
The Mounties won their second straight conference title and reached the NCAA Division III Tournament, winning a school-record 33 games in the process.
They reached the second round before falling to Arcadia and Randolph-Macon. Mt. Aloysius was the first AMCC team to make the national tournament.
Another first-team All-AMCC player from the WPIAL on the roster is sophomore pitcher Karlie Clark, a Yough graduate.
She finished 7-4 with a 2.64 ERA and a team-best 51 strikeouts in 712/3 innings.
Mt. Aloysius is scheduled to open the season March 11 at Saint Vincent.
SB | Softball Picked #1 in Preseason Poll, Lydia DeFazio Named Preseason Player of the Year https://t.co/jx3NmdaAzG
— Mount Aloysius Athletics (@Mounties_Sports) February 18, 2020
