Hansen named to first-team; Noke to second-team after a pair of amazing seasons

RINDGE, N.H. (April 30, 2014) – Two members of the Franklin Pierce University softball team this week, sophomore pitcher/outfielder Tricia Hansen (Mansfield, Mass.) and senior designated player/third baseman Ashley Noke (Cumberland, R.I.), were honored by the Northeast-10 Conference by earning all-league accolades for their amazing 2014 seasons.

Hansen was placed on the All-NE-10 First-Team as a utility player for her exploits in the pitching circle, at the plate, and in right field, while Noke earned a spot on the second-team as a designated hitter for her offensive performance at the dish.

Hansen finished the season with a 7-7 record in the circle, but was one of the hottest hurlers in the league heading down the final stretch of the regular season. She won her last five decisions, while striking out 68 batters on the year and only walking 23. She yielded just 60 earned runs and produced a 4.36 earned run average. Hansen’s most dominant outing in the circle was a complete-game, two-hit shutout of Saint Michael’s in an 8-0 win in game two of a doubleheader on April 22. She struck out the first four batters she faced, and after yielding back-to-back singles in the second, she retired the final 14 batters. Hansen ranked ninth in the NE-10 in complete games (12) and shutouts (2).

At the plate, Hansen batted .344 this year with one home run and six runs batted in. She produced a 10-game hitting streak late in the season, including getting multiple hits in three of those contests. She had nine multi-hit games this season, including three straight at one point. Hansen had a season-high three hits, while driving in a pair of runs in a 10-1 win over Assumption on March 29.

Noke had an outstanding finish to the 2013 season, which catapulted her to an even better 2014 campaign. A senior co-captain, she batted .321 with a home run and 12 RBI, including blasting the first home run in the history of the Melissa Bisaccia Memorial Softball Complex on April 8 in a contest versus Saint Anselm.  Noke had six multi-hit games, including a three-hit attack with an RBI in a 7-4 win over Southern Connecticut State on April 5.

Hansen and Noke were just two parts of a Franklin Pierce team that achieved a tremendous amount of success during the 2014 season, as it builds towards an exciting future in Rindge. The highlight of the season was the debut of the brand new Bisaccia Complex, which premiered on April 8. The Ravens also put together a seven-game winning streak late in the season and eventually won eight of their last 11. Four of those wins during that seven-game streak was a four-game series sweep of first-place Stonehill on April 17 and 19. Franklin Pierce’s 10 wins in the league this year were tied for the most conference wins for a single season in program history.

For more information on Franklin Pierce softball, please visit the team’s page at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu. To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce softball apparel can do so on the athletic department’s online store at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)