: ''For information on all Saint Francis University sports, see

Saint Francis Red Flash The Saint Francis Red Flash are the 22 sports teams representing Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania in intercollegiate athletics. The Red Flash competes in the NCAA Division I and are primary members of the Northeast Conference, wi ...

'' The Saint Francis Red Flash softball team represents

Saint Francis University Saint Francis University (SFU) is a private Catholic university in Loretto, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1847 and conducted under the tradition of the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular. The university is situated ...

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

. The team participates in the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

(NEC). The Red Flash are currently were most recently led by head coach Beth Krysiak. The team plays its home games at Red Flash Softball Field, which is located on the college's campus.

History

After nearly four decades of minimal success, the Red Flash rose to prominence in the Northeast Conference after the hiring of former coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift and current head coach Jessica O'Donnell. Patrick-Swift left the team after the 2018 season. The program won five NEC tournament championships from 2017 to 2022, as the 2020 NEC tournament was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The program also won the NEC regular season championship in 2017, 2018, and from 2021 until 2023. By winning the NEC tournament, the program qualified for the

NCAA Division I softball tournament The NCAA Division I softball tournament is held annually in May/June and features 64 college softball teams in the United States, culminating in the Women's College World Series (WCWS), which is played in Oklahoma City. Tournament play and team ...

. In the

2017 NCAA tournament Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number) * One of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017, 2117 Science * Chlorine, a halogen in the periodic table * 17 Thetis, an asteroid in the asteroid belt Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American maga ...

, the Red Flash won their first NCAA tournament game in program history, defeating

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a Public university system, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution ...

by a score of 8-4 before being eliminated from the tournament by

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. They were eliminated in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

without winning a game and scoring only six runs in eight total games, but won its second ever game in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. In 2021, former third baseman Mekenzie Saban was named to Softball America's All-American Third-team. In 2022, Saban was named Northeast Conference Player of the Year, while pitcher Rachel Marsden was named Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Year. On June 21, 2023, head coach Jessica O'Donnell announced her departure from the program to become the head coach of

Kent State Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Ashtabula, Burton, East Liverpool, Jackson Township, New Philadelphia, ...

History

Coaching history

Roster

Season by season results

See also

References

External links