Softball Celebrates Season, Bids Sophomores Adieu

Eastern Florida's softball team on Tuesday gathered on the Palm Bay Campus for a pasta dinner to celebrate the past and look to the future.

Milestones included posting the highest team cumulative GPA at 3.32 for the 2014-2015 academic year; earning a 12^th straight postseason appearance with a 12-8 second-place finish in the FCSAA Southern Conference; sweeping the 2016 season series with Miami Dade College; and handing Indian River State College its lone 2016 conference defeat.

The Titans finished 24-30 overall. The Titans also finished second in the conference in 2007 going 11-5 with a 35-15 overall record and 2010 going 13-7 with a 29-22 overall mark.

Head coach Ed Yanes and assistant coach Bob Yanczewski addressed the team, reviewing the season and extending emotional wishes for the players' futures.

The program featured a video produced by player Hannah Roberts' mother Susan who filmed and photographed the team over her daughter's two seasons.

The players, coaches and staff were then presented framed collages of Roberts' photos.

Other season highlights included players earning All-Southern Conference first team honors.

Sophomore first baseman Hannah Roberts, from Palm Harbor, Florida and East Lake High, was selected in the infield category while classmate Alexa Snyder, from Las Vegas and Cimarron Memorial High, was selected as a pitcher and freshman Karli Smith, from Miami and Florida Christian School, was honored in the at-large category.

Earning second team honors were sophomores catcher Taylor Zitiello, from Ponte Vedra, Florida and Ponte Vedra High, infielder Natasha Kistler, from Jacksonville, Florida and Bishop Snyder High, and outfielders Rosie Lyard, from Quebec, Canada and École Secondaire Cardinal-Roy and Sarah Hart, from Satellite Beach, Florida and Satellite High.

Zitiello was a first-team pick in 2015 while Kistler was a second-team honoree.

Also, Snyder and classmate Carly Nicholas have signed to continue their softball and academic careers at NAIA Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee.

The departing sophomores are Roberts, Snyder, Zitiello, Kistler, Lyard, Hart, Nicholas, Mackenzie Soughers, Tamara Warren and Katie Darrah.