LORETTO, Pa. – Despite being only a sophomore, pitcher Grace Vesco is making her mark on Saint Francis Softball this season, throwing two no-hitters during non-conference play as she continues to establish herself as consistent and reliable within the circle.

"It's exciting – a no-hitter is something special," said Vesco. "They don't happen all the time. Credit to all my teammates, it wouldn't be possible without them. The defense has really stepped up this year, making diving catches, and without that a no-hitter isn't possible. I give all the credit to them for that."

Vesco leads the Red Flash pitching staff as Saint Francis looks to flourish in 2021 after having its 2020 season cut short because of the global pandemic. SFU is off to a strong start with a 15-6 non-conference record and a perfect 4-0 record to open Northeast Conference play.

"It's been exciting to see us this year, we've had a lot of success," said Vesco. "I think the big thing this year is playing every game as if it's your last game. With COVID last year taking away our season, it was really devastating for all of us. To see us put all of that work in and then our season being taken away from us. We took that as an opportunity to grow and get better within our team – stronger, faster. To see that pay-off is really rewarding."

While the team used the extended offseason to the best of its advantage, Vesco also took the opportunity to mature and grow as a pitcher. Her offseason work has seen not only her statistics improve in every category, but her maturity and confidence grow as well.

"The transition from freshman to sophomore year has really been confidence and trusting my skills," said Vesco. "I think it was huge for that time during quarantine, yes it was hard, but I was able to put in so much work perfecting my pitches, working on my spins and all of that work has gotten me to where I am today. The experience I had my freshman year was a lot. We had a tough schedule. We faced Washington, Stanford, so that experience has helped me as well. I give a lot of thanks to Coach Annamarie Gatti and Coach Jessica O'Donnell. They have taught me what it's like to pitch at this level and have really worked on me getting both physically and mentally stronger in the circle."

"Grace came in and you could just tell that she wanted to become the best pitcher she could be for herself and her teammates," said Gatti. "She and the entire staff have put in countless hours in order to change their pitches to make them just a little bit better and have ran with it ever since. Coaching Grace is like coaching myself at times, she is very coachable and has great body awareness at this stage in her career and she is just in the beginning. She has grown so much since the first time we met in the Aux gym. She decided she was going to buy in and she never questioned or looked back and for that she deserves all the good that has been coming her way. She just has to continue to get better to maintain."

Vesco's play this season has earned her NEC Prime Performer honors each of the four weeks of the 2021 awards so far in addition to being named NEC Pitcher of the Month for February and NEC Pitcher of the Week on March 9. She's also been recognized as an NFCA Top Performer on three occasions. While she has personal goals to drive herself to become better every day, Vesco also wants to be the best teammate she can be in order to help the team succeed.

"My goal is to be a supportive teammate," said Vesco. "I love seeing my team succeed. It's been exciting to see us all contribute in all different ways. I do have an ERA-specific goal – I want to get a 2.00 ERA. I tend to look at goals for each game for me. Each game is a goal all the way down to each inning, each batter, each pitch. Whether it be to get a groundout or a strikeout, those are the in-game goals that I set for myself to reach the long-term goals."

Vesco is already meeting her personal goals to this point in the season, posting a 0.90 ERA through her first 13 appearances and earning 11 victories through 85.1 innings of work. Seven of her 11 victories are shutouts as seven shutouts ranks second in the country. She's pitched a complete game in all 13 of her appearances. The Red Flash played tough non-conference competition in order to prepare for NEC play this season as the freshmen and sophomores got their first taste of conference play and played the first home games at Red Flash Softball Field of their careers this past weekend against Wagner.

"All those [non-conference] games are what we've been preparing for conference, conference is what matters and we're just excited," said Vesco. "Our goal for the end of the year is to win the regular season and win the tournament championship. SFU Softball, when we come out we're putting our whole heart on the field. We're leaving everything out there. Expect passion and excitement from us."

Saint Francis continues conference play on the road this week at Merrimack. Thursday's doubleheader starts at noon and Friday's doubleheader begins at 11 a.m. View the full schedule for Red Flash Softball HERE.

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To learn more about Saint Francis University, visit francis.edu.