McDonnell inks with D-I Lafayette

Matt Metcalf, Assistant Sports Editor
Posted 11/13/14

In front of family, coaches and friends on Wednesday afternoon, Pilgrim High School softball standout Ellen McDonnell signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Leopards of Lafayette College …

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McDonnell inks with D-I Lafayette

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In front of family, coaches and friends on Wednesday afternoon, Pilgrim High School softball standout Ellen McDonnell signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Leopards of Lafayette College next year.

McDonnell’s signing marked the first time in Pilgrim history that a softball player has signed with an NCAA Division I school.

“I’m really excited,” McDonnell said. “I made the decision to verbally commit last May. I went and visited the school and just loved it so much. I’m so excited.”

McDonnell had been on Lafayette’s radar for quite some time, playing for one of its assistant coaches on another team and impressing her enough to spark some interest.

“I played for one of their assistant coaches previously, so I knew I really liked her,” McDonnell said. “The head coach was really great too, so they just drew me into the program.”

The coaching staff wasn’t the only thing that attracted McDonnell to the small college in Easton, Penn.

“When I visited the school, I just fell in love with it right away,” McDonnell said. “The academics there are outstanding as well. It’s a perfect fit for me.”

McDonnell was a Third Team All-Division selection a season ago after hitting .486 with an on-base percentage of .512. Even though she lost three weeks of her junior season due to an injury, McDonnell has 86 career hits, which is 33 shy of Katelyn Reph’s all-time school hits record of 119.

However, the record isn’t something that crosses McDonnell’s mind too often.

“I try not to focus on that too much,” McDonnell said. “I just try to play my game and if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

Pilgrim head coach Bill Aquilante seconded that thought, implying that he believes that winning a championship to end her high school career is more important than breaking the record.

“I think it means something to her, but records don’t mean everything,” Aquilante said. “I think if you were to ask her, she’d say that she’d like to go deep into the playoffs and win a championship this year.”

After just a 7-9 record for Pilgrim a season ago, and an injury-plagued campaign for McDonell, she’s ready for a great senior season with the Patriots and hopefully a run at a state title.

“I hope this season will be one of my best seasons,” McDonnell said. “As a team, we were really young last year, but we were getting there. I think we’re going to continue to improve this year and make a mark.”

What position she will play at Lafayette is still up in the air. In fact, she’s so capable all over the diamond that Aquilante isn’t even sure where she’ll play for the Patriots this spring.

“We honestly don’t know where she’s going to play next year because she’s so versatile,” Aquilante said. “We’re just going to have to see where she fits because she can play so many different positions. She’ll just fill our biggest area of need.”

McDonnell encountered success soon after stepping onto the field as a freshman at Pilgrim. She went on to hit .411 in her freshman year and followed that up by hitting .488 with 31 runs scored and 24 runs batted in during her sophomore year.

She’s undoubtedly one of the toughest outs in the state, striking out just five times in 188 at-bats over her three seasons, while sporting an on-base percentage of .488 for her career.

“It’s great for the program to have her,” Aquilante said. “She was a really good player when she came to us as a freshman, but now she’s good enough to play at the highest level in college.”

For Aquilante, no one is more deserving than McDonnell, as she possesses many qualities both as a player and a person that he looks for.

“She’s a great representative of what we want a student-athlete to be,” Aquilante said.

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