Pulek, Sylvester Pick Up First-Team NFCA Northeast Honors

BOSTON – The Suffolk softball dynamic duo of Jill Pulek and Delaney Sylvester garnered more yearly accolades as the sophomore and junior earned spots on the NFCA first-team, the organization announced Monday afternoon. The pair is the first Rams in the program's 33-year history to garner first-team all-region accolades in the same season. 

Pulek found herself on the region first team for the second season, marking the first-time a Ram earned back-to-back first-team All-NFCA honors since Erin McAndrews did in 2013 and 2014. Pulek, who calls Cheshire, Connecticut, home, had yet another powerful plate performance in 2017, putting together an impressive stat line of .384/.424/.715. The 5-foot-3 righty recorded 58, hits, 17 doubles and 11 over the fence, for 108 total bases, driving in 44 runs and scoring 31 herself. 

Sylvester, meanwhile, has been a consistent name on the all-region list since her freshman campaign and earned her first first-team accolade this year as a junior. The Worcester, Massachusetts, native, strung together a .421 average (46-145) on the season, producing 11 doubles and 10 dingers. The two-time GNAC Corvias Player of the Week was in all of Suffolk's starting lineups behind the dish, bringing in 39 runs, scoring 26 and held a near perfect fielding percentage of .922. Her standup junior year featured the Rams' first-ever Lousiville Slugger/NFCA DIII National Player of the Week May 3 thanks to a 7-0 week in which Sylvester hit .715 with eight runs scored, four walks, two doubles, three homers and 10 RBI. Her stellar offense, which featured 1.998 OPS, transferred to errorless defense of 31 putouts and one assist at catcher. 

Pulek and Sylvester helped Suffolk surprise the conference championship field with a 3-2 triumph over the tournament's top seed and regular season champion Johnson & Wales to force a winner's take all game. In the end, the Rams fell, 15-5, to end Suffolk's season at 29-17.