WESTON, Mass. – Just a few months before the United States earned the first softball gold medal in Olympic history, the Regis College softball team put together its own magical run during the 1996 spring season.
Posting a 20-6 overall record, Regis led all of Division III in home runs per game (0.77), total stolen bases (161), and stolen bases per game (6.19). The team combined for a .319 batting average and a 2.49 earned run average, outscoring opponents 204-108 during the season, plus the players compiled a stolen base success rate of 95.3 percent (161-for-169).
Although the team struggled during its season-opening trip to Florida, it came together and quickly got on the winning track back in New England. Battling the weather and ensuing schedule changes, Regis won eight straight games, starting with a doubleheader sweep of Suffolk, 15-5 and 6-2.
The team lost an extra-inning game at Salve Regina, 5-4, but it would not lose another contest in the regular season. Starting with a dominating doubleheader sweep at New England College, Regis put together a 12-game winning streak, including a 2-1 extra-inning victory over Curry for its first Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) title.
After road wins at Brandeis and Massachusetts Maritime, Regis won the MAIAW championship thanks to home victories over WPI and Elms. They thought that was the end of the season, but a berth in the ECAC Tournament materialized, and Regis played a competitive game in losing at Williams, 4-2.
Samantha Dutily, a 2019 individual inductee into the Regis College Athletics Hall of Fame, earned her first of two straight CCC Player of the Year Awards, batting .424 (36-for-85) with seven doubles, four triples, four home runs, 17 RBI, and 27 stolen bases in 29 attempts. Cristen Coleman received CCC Rookie of the Year honors after accumulating a 10-3 record with a 1.40 earned run average, pitching four shutouts during the season.
Joanne Ruane received CCC Coach of the Year recognition, leading the team to a 54-22 (.711) record over a three-year stretch from 1996 to 1998. Besides Dutily and Coleman, Renee Lehmann and Courtney Gagnon picked up All-CCC honors. Stacey Garland was named CCC Softball Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year and MAIAW All-Academic, and she received the prestigious Mother Regis Award for her contributions to the campus community academically, athletically, and in service.
The 1996 softball squad was inducted into the Regis College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011, one of three teams across the athletic program to earn such an honor.