IMMACULATA, Pa. - Immaculata University's softball team has reached the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Tournament for an impressive eight-straight season. The Mighty Macs enter the conference tournament as the No. 5-seed, and begin play on Wednesday, May 4, in a first-round game at Marywood.

The Mighty Macs (16-20, 14-8 CSAC) will travel to fourth-seeded Marywood (21-13, 17-5 CSAC) on Wednesday, May 4, for a 4 p.m. start with the Pacers. Marywood swept Immaculata in a pair of one-run games, 4-3 and 5-4, during the regular season.

Immaculata and Marywood faced off in the first round of the 2015 CSAC Tournament, in which the Mighty Macs were the fourth seed and hosting the fifth-seeded Pacers. The Mighty Macs edged the Pacers, 5-4, in that game, which saw Marywood rally for four runs in the top of the seventh. Immaculata advanced to the CSAC Championship with the victory, where it fell to top-seeded Neumann, 3-2, in the first game before defeating Gwynedd Mercy, 8-0, to reach the final day. Immaculata was then knocked out by CSAC runner-up Cabrini, 8-0.

CSAC Player of the Year Annemarie Bartow tops the Mighty Mac statistical charts in batting average (.509), hits (59), doubles (21), triples (3), home runs (8), RBI (41), runs scored (40), slugging percentage (.981), and on-base percentage (.557), while only striking out just three times in 116 at-bats this season. She is a .563 hitter in CSAC contests and is solid defensively at shortstop, owning a .960 fielding percentage in 22 CSAC games.
 
Fellow First Team All-CSAC selection Melissa Ejk is hitting .424 (50-for-118) this season for the Mighty Macs, and is second on the squad with 14 doubles and 33 runs scored. She has 24 RBIs, a .593 slugging percentage and .477 on-base average. She also leads Immaculata with 13 walks, while having the fewest strikeouts (2) on the team.
 
Kelsey Collevechio and Honorable Mention All-CSAC pick Paige Hughes are also threats at the plate. Collevechio has a .365 batting average with 27 hits, 11 doubles, one triple and one home run. She has 27 RBIs while also scoring 27 times. Hughes is a .364 hitter with 24 hits, 15 RBIs and 11 runs scored.
 
Freshman pitcher Jessica Bormann is leading the team in both wins (8) and innings pitched (86.1) during 2016. She has a team-low 5.11 earned-run average while striking out 31 and having almost perfect control with only five walks. Sophomore Caitlin Brasier has tossed 80 innings for the Macs with a 6.98 ERA and five wins. She has a team-high 47 strikeouts.

Marywood, which won the CSAC title in 2014, has qualified for the conference tournament for nine-straight seasons. Marywood and Immaculata also met in a first round contest during the 2010 championship as the fifth-seeded Mighty Macs traveled to the fourth-seeded Pacers, where the Macs fell 6-1.  

In the league's other first-round game on Wednesday, No. 3-seed Gwynedd Mercy will host No. 6-seed Cedar Crest. The winners of Wednesday's preliminary contests will travel to No. 1-seed Neumann for the championship finals on May 6 and 7. 
 
Complete CSAC Championship information can be found by visiting the conference website HERE.