BOSTON – Suffolk softball sisters Delaney and Payton Sylvester earned GNAC Corvias weekly awards with the former earning player and the latter being named rookie the league office announced Monday afternoon.
The pair helped Suffolk to a 2-2 start as the blue-and-gold split its first two days of the season at The Spring Games in Clermont, Florida.
Delaney Sylvester produced at least one hit and had a pair of outings with two multi-hit performances to hold a team-high six hits, three of which were good for extra bases, to hold an impressive slash line of .600/.636/1.100 just four games into her senior season. On day one, the catcher went 2-for-2 with two RBI in both of the Rams' two contests with a homer and one run in the season opener versus Geneseo and three runs and one double in the 10-1, five-inning victory over UMass Boston. A day later, she contributed one hit in three plate appearances in each of Suffolk's two games with one double in the 7-4 triumph over the University of New England to open the day's action.
Payton Sylvester, meanwhile, made the most of her collegiate debut contributing in the field, at the plate and inside the circle. Over the quartet of games she hit .300 with three hits, one double, for two RBI and scored twice. two Her five walks helped in a .533 on-base percentage. Inside the circle, she earned her first win behind a one-run, three-hit, no-walk, four-strikeout, complete-game performance in the 10-1 win over the Beacons. Against No. 7 Amherst, she tossed 1.2 frames of relief work in which she gave up two runs on four hits and one walk. In two appearances, the freshman has the second most experience on the rubber with 6.2 innings pitched for the second-best ERA, 2.10, and holds the most strikeouts (4).
The honor marks the third of Delaney Sylvester's collegiate career, while her sister's first collegiate weekly honor marks the first time a Rams' rookie received conference recognition since Ashley Zulla did so on March 27, 2017. The duo are the first Suffolk students to be tabbed the conference's best player and rookie over a seven day stretch in the same week in the Jaclyn Davis era and first since Jess Ferreira and Karina Bolster received the recognitions March 31, 2009.
The siblings and Suffolk are back on the diamond tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13 with a pair of games. The Rams will first meet UMass Dartmouth at 4:30 p.m., before facing Stockton at 7:00 p.m.