NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State team placed four players on the MEAC Preseason Softball Team, it was announced by the league office on Thursday afternoon.
Brissa Alvarado and
Soraya Valdez-Frick earned First Team honors while
Haley Bravo and
Sydney Dombrowski received Second Team recognition. In the predicted order of finish, Coppin was picked to finish fifth in the Northern Division.
A junior from Rialto, Calif., Alvarado is one of the top utility players in the MEAC as she will lead the Eagles at the plate as well as in the pitcher's circle. Alvarado has batted .378 in her career at Coppin with seven doubles and nine RBI. Last season, Alvarado hit 11-for-24 (.458) with a pair of doubles in nine games. Alvarado has also picked up a pair of wins on the rubber in her career, recording a 6.77 career earned run average and eight complete games.
Valdez-Frick has hit .287 in 46 career games with the Eagles while recording four doubles, a home run and 13 RBI. In nine games last season, the native of San Mateo, Calif., hit .348 with a double while recording a perfect fielding percentage from her shortstop position. Valdez-Frick collected a pair of RBI in a doubleheader at UMBC which included Coppin's first win over the Retrievers since 2013.
Bravo was amid a career season before it was cut short due to CoVID-19, hitting .400 with a double and five RBI in nine games. A senior outfielder from Rialto, Calif., Bravo has appeared in 120 games for the Eagles the last four years while making 107 starts and driving in 22 runs. Bravo ended last year with three-straight multi-hit games with two RBI versus UMBC and Saint Peter's.
A senior first baseman from Swansboro, N.C., Dombrowski has played in 44 games with 38 starts the last three seasons. Dombrowski hit .300 with a double and two runs in nine games last season and is a .233 career hitter while recording a .356 on-base percentage. To close out 2020, Dombrowski was on a three-game hit streak which included an RBI double against Saint Peter's.
Howard was picked to win the Northern Division by just one point over Norfolk State, who earned nine first place votes to the Bison's eight. Morgan State followed in third, followed by Delaware State and the Eagles.
In the South, Florida A&M received 16 of 19 first place votes, followed by North Carolina Central, North Carolina A&T and South Carolina State.
The Eagles are scheduled to open the 2021 season on February 19-20 when they host Army for a three-game series. Friday's doubleheader is set for 1 pm, followed by a 12 pm single game on Saturday.
