University of Delaware Athletics
Shaffer, Kerwood, Cahalan All Earn Major CAA Awards as Softball Receives Eight All-Conference Honors
5/6/2025 3:00:00 PM | Softball
RICHMOND, Va. - University of Delaware's Sydney Shaffer, Billie Kerwood, and Mary Beth Cahalan all earned major CAA postseason awards as the Blue Hens had seven players named to All-Conference teams. Shaffer was named Player of the Year, Kerwood was named Pitcher of the Year, and Cahalan was named Defensive Player of the Year. All three, along with Morgan Hess, were first First-Team All-CAA selections. Katie Scheivert and Sorella Gallucci received Second-Team honors, and Gallucci and Ellie Talley were All-Rookie selections.Â
Shaffer becomes the third player in program history to earn a Player of the Year award, joining Lauren Mark (America East, 1999), and Laura Streets (CAA, 2004). Shaffer has put together one of the greatest seasons in Delaware history. She has set single-season records for home runs (18) and total bases (128) and has tied the single-season RBI record at 55. She is also on track to have the highest batting average (.418), on base percentage (.532), slugging percentage (.877), and OPS (1.409) in a season in school history. Shaffer has the third most runs scored (47) and walks (34) and ninth most hits (61) and doubles (13) in a season. She leads the CAA in home runs, total bases, RBIs, slugging percentage, OPS, and walks, is second in on base percentage and runs, third in average, fourth in doubles, and fifth in hits. In CAA play, Shaffer is hitting .425/.529/.975 with 31 runs, 34 hits, 11 doubles, 11 home runs, and 19 walks in 27 games. Nationally, she ranks 21st in slugging percentage, 25th in home runs, 28th in total bases, 31st in on base percentage, and 49th in RBIs. In eight games against Power Conference opponents, Shaffer has hit .375/.464/.792 with three home runs and 10 RBIs. She is tied for the most CAA Player of the Week awards with three, leads the CAA in multi-RBI games with 16, and second in the CAA with 21 multi-hit games. Her overall OPS and CAA-only OPS is best by a CAA player since 2021.
Kerwood becomes the second Delaware player to earn Pitcher of the Year, joining Emily Winburn in 2022. In her first and only season with the Blue Hens, Kerwood has gone 23-8 in 177.1 innings with a 1.58 ERA, 238 strikeouts, 11 complete games, four shutouts, and has held opponents to a .188 BAA. Kerwood's 23 wins and 238 strikeouts set a program record for a season, and her 238 strikeouts are already good for 10th most on the all-time Delaware leaderboard. Her 15 strikeouts against Monmouth on April 25 tied a season-best for a CAA pitcher and tied a program record for strikeouts in a conference game. Kerwood leads the CAA in ERA, wins, strikeouts, innings pitched, complete games, BAA, and is second in shutouts. She is on pace to become first CAA pitcher to lead conference in ERA, wins, and strikeouts since 2017. Nationally, Kerwood ranks fourth in strikeouts, fifth in wins, 12th in innings pitched, 13th in ERA, 19th in WHIP, 21st in strikeout-to-walk ratio, 22nd in hits allowed per seven innings, and 39th in shutouts. On April 18 against, she threw the program's 19th ever no-hitter.Â
Cahalan becomes Delaware's fourth-consecutive Defensive Player of the Year honoree. All four awards have come at four different positions (Hannah Garber - 2022 at third base, Kiara Mills - 2023 at first base, Julz Garber - 2024 in center field). Delaware is the first school in CAA history to have earn a Defensive Player of the Year in four straight years and Cahalan is the first catcher to earn the award since James Madison's Erica Field in 2016. She is also in her and only season with the Blue Hens. Cahalan has guided a pitching staff that leads CAA with 18 shutouts (fourth nationally) and a 2.05 ERA (fourth nationally). She has allowed just 17 stolen bases while catching nine for a 52.9 percent caught-stealing rate and has committed just one error. According to D1Softball, she ranks seventh in the country in framing runs saved and 17th in defensive runs saved and defensive wins above replacement (both second among catchers). Offensively this season, Cahalan is hitting .322/.395/.531 with 24 runs scored, 46 hits, 12 doubles, six home runs, and 31 RBIs. In CAA-only games, she is second in hits (34), third in AVG (.420) and in total bases (57), fourth in doubles (8), fifth in home runs (5), and sixth in slugging percentage (.704) and OPS (1.151). Cahalan's six RBIs on March 9 against Drexel were tied for the most by a CAA player this season and tied for third most in a game in program history. Cahalan is the first Delaware catcher to be an All-Conference selection since Anna Steinmetz in 2019 and first to earn First-Team honors since Steinmetz in 2018.Â
Hess earned her second-straight First-Team All-CAA selection at the Pitcher/Utility spot. Starring as a two-way player again, Hess hit .366/.433/.641 with 35 runs scored, 52 hits, 11 doubles, eight home runs, and 38 RBIs. In the circle, she went 10-5 with a 2.41 ERA, 72 strikeouts, a .205 BAA, seven complete games, and six shutouts. In CAA-only games, she is hitting .434/.467/.807 with 24 runs, 36 hits, eight doubles, seven home runs, and 30 RBIs while going 6-1 in the circle with a 1.87 ERA in 48.2 innings pitched, 36 strikeouts, four complete games, and three shutouts. In the CAA, she ranks first in shutouts, third in BAA, fourth in home runs, fifth in ERA, sixth in wins, seventh in total bases, eighth in OPS and complete games, ninth in slugging percentage, and 10th in average, doubles, and strikeouts. Hess has three CAA Player of the Week honors, tied for most in the league. Nationally, her six shutouts are the seventh most in the country. On April 26 against Monmouth, she threw her second career no-hitter, becoming the third player in program history with multiple no-hitters. She has earned an All-Conference selection in every season of her collegiate career - two at Presbyterian and two at Delaware.Â
Scheivert was named Second-Team All-CAA. The former All-Rookie selection had career-highs in nearly every offensive category, as she hit .333/.397/.470 with 41 runs scored, 56 hits, 12 doubles, three home runs, 25 RBIs, 16 walks, and nine stolen bases while starting in 48 of Delaware's 51 games in the leadoff spot. She ranks fourth in the CAA in runs scored, sixth in doubles, and ninth in hits. On May 1 against Towson, Scheivert tied a program record for runs scored in a game with four. Her 41 runs scored are tied with Julz Garber (2024) teammate Chloe Blantz for fourth most in a single-season in school history. From April 12-27, she scored a run in nine consecutive games. Scheivert hit a leadoff home runs on the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning against Stony Brook on March 14, and hit home runs against Hofstra on March 21 and 22.
Gallucci earned Second-Team and All-Rookie honors, the first Delaware freshman to be named to an All-Conference team since Graceyn Frost in 2022. Gallucci has hit .322/.398/.489 with 21 runs scored, 29 hits, eight doubles, two triples, one home run, and 14 RBIs while striking out only three times. She tied a program record for doubles in a game with three against Drexel on March 9, the only player in CAA this season with a three-double game. With runners in scoring position, she is hitting .323. In CAA play, Gallucci is hitting .344/.408/.484 with 22 hits, six doubles, a home run, 15 runs scored, and zero strikeouts. She had seven multi-hit games in her final 13 regular season games.
Talley was also an All-Rookie selection. In 33 games, she hit .304/.333/.580 with 15 runs scored, 21 hits, seven doubles, four home runs, and 14 RBIs. Against CAA opponents, she hit .359/.405/.641 with three home runs. Talley came up clutch multiple times during the season as well, hitting a walk-off home run against Rider on March 18, delivering a walk-off hit against Towson on May 2 to clinch CAA Regular Season Championship, and hit .407 with runners on base and .462 with RISP. She also had a pinch-hit three-run double against Penn Feb. 23.Â
Delaware's six players on a First or Second All-Conference Team are the most in program history, besting the five it received in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The four First-Team selections are tied for the second most in program history, and the most since 1986 when UD was a member of the East Coast Conference. The 1984 team had five First-Team selections. The eight total All-CAA honorees are a program record, besting the seven earned in 2021 and 2024. Delaware has earned multiple All-Rookie selections in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2019 and 2021, and the first time without a COVID-interrupted season 2018-2019. The Blue Hens have earned multiple All-Conference pitcher selections in four consecutive seasons (2022 - Winburn and Frost, 2023 - Winburn and Taylor Wroten, 2024 - Winburn and Hess).Â
Delaware enters the CAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed after winning its third regular season title in four years. The Blue Hens have already set program records for home runs, doubles, strikeouts, conference wins, consecutive conference wins, run-rule victories, and consecutive run-rule victories in a season. Its 23 conference wins are the most ever by a CAA team.
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