With two wins Saturday over Monroe College-Bronx, the Community College of Rhode Island softball team captured the 2024 NJCAA Division III Northeast District Championship to punch its ticket to the College World Series for the first time in program history.

The Region XXI champion Knights, who finished the regular season 30-2 and ranked No. 6 in the nation, beat the Region XV champion Express 11-8 and 13-4 in New Rochelle, NY, on Saturday to earn one of seven automatic bids to the NJCAA D-III World Series, which begins May 22 in Chattanooga, TN.

Kate Motta (Warwick, RI) went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI and Jenna Altieri (Warwick, RI) finished 2-for-3 with two RBI in the Knights’ Game 1 victory. CCRI raced out to a 5-1 lead after four innings, but the Express cut it to 5-4 with three runs in the bottom of the fifth before the Knights iced it with four in the sixth and two more in the seventh. Sophia Chevian (Warwick, RI) went the distance for the Knights, striking out six without walking a batter. Zoe Battersby (West Warwick, RI) went 1-for-4 with a solo home run and Brianna Grenier (Cumberland, RI) had a pair of hits and an RBI.

Grenier continued her outstanding weekend with a pair of inside-the-park home runs and finished 3-for-3 with four RBI and three runs scored. CCRI scored four in the first and eight in the third to break the game open and Janina Mazzulla (Johnston, RI) improved to 11-0 on the mound with five strikeouts in a complete-game effort. Chevian added a two-run home run during the eight-run third inning while the Express committed five errors that led to seven unearned runs. The game ended after four innings with the Knights celebrating their first trip to the World Series and an 11-game win streak dating back to their last loss on April 23.

CCRI will find out where it’s seeded on Sunday, May 19 at 10 am during the official NJCAA Softball World Series Selection Show. The Knights join Region XIII and North Plains A District Champion Rochester (19-18) and Region 10 and Appalachian District Champion Patrick & Henry (30-24) as the first three teams to earn automatic bids. Patrick & Henry is currently ranked No. 2 in the nation behind reigning national champion North Dakota State College of Science (43-9). Rochester won its last six, including three playoff games, to punch its ticket this past weekend.

Four more automatic bids are up for grabs and the lone at-large big will be announced on May 19.

The Knights set the tone for what has been a historic season during their annual spring trip to Myrtle Beach, where they went 7-0, including a win over Joliet Junior College, which was ranked No. 4 in the NJCAA preseason poll. The wins continue when the team returned to the northeast and the season-opening win streak reached 20 until they lost their first game of the season in a doubleheader against Orange County.

With 30 wins in 32 games, the Knights clinched the Region XXI championship for the first time since 2016 also finished with a .938 win percentage, breaking the single-season record set by the 2005 team, and fell just two wins shy of the school record for wins in a season.