CAMBRIDGE, MA. -- Despite their final seasons being cut short, the Lesley Lynx softball senior class has a great four years to look back on. Allyson Murphy, a catcher from Raynham, MA, and Patricia Muratore, an outfielder from Mamaroneck, NY, have both played four seasons for the Lynx and were part of three postseason runs. Over their seasons, the Lynx put up a record of 70-47 overall and were 40-10 in conference play.
In their freshman year, Murphy and Muratore were members of an NECC championship-winning team that went 15-3 in the conference. Murphy was named as the All-NECC Second Team catcher that year after hitting .323 with three home runs (her first collegiate homer came on March 12th, 2017 against The College of New Jersey). She also had ten doubles, drove in 23 runs, and walked 16 times while playing and starting all 41 games behind the plate. Muratore appeared in 36 games in her first season, hitting .213 and driving in four runs. She was a productive runner for the Lynx, scoring seventeen runs, including a stretch of eight over eight games to close out the season.
The Lynx made the NECC Tournament in the sophomore and junior seasons of Murphy and Muratore's careers and put up strong fights despite being eliminated in the first round and semifinals. Murphy missed much of her second year due to injury but bounced back in her junior season to return to the All-NECC Second Team. She hit .316 and smashed four homers, driving in thirteen runs. Murphy was the owner of three game-winning hits in her junior year: a three-run homer against UMass Boston, a sac-fly against Dean, and another homer in a tournament game over Elms. She had two three-hit games to set a career high and finished with a .993 fielding percentage behind the plate, finishing with only one error and throwing out 20% of baserunners. Muratore played in 44 games over her second and third seasons, collecting four RBI and scoring another fourteen runs. She also had two assists from the outfield and committed only one error.
Both Murphy and Muratore started their senior years off promisingly. Muratore played seven games on Lesley's trip to Florida, going two for nine and recording only one error and an assist in the outfield. Murphy appeared in nine games on the trip and hit .280 with three doubles. She drove in two runs and scored three, while walking three times.
Murphy hit .311 over her years with the Lynx, tallying seven home runs and 42 RBI. She put up a .369 on base percentage and .400 slugging percentage and collected sixteen doubles and scored 37 runs. Muratore scored 31 runs in her four years with the Lynx, in addition to seventeen hits, eight runs batted in, and eight stolen bases.
"We are more than friends, we are a family, we have this unbreakable bond," Muratore says of her teammates. "It hurts that we can't show everyone all the heart and hard work we put into this season…time really does fly when you're having fun, so don't ever give up when it comes to something you love."
Murphy hopes her fellow student-athletes appreciate every opportunity they get. "Be grateful for every time you step on the field or court," she says. "Remember why you play and to always have fun…leave it all on the field."
Head coach Heather Ross says "Patty and Murph are my first four year class as a head coach, and bought in right away to new systems and culture as freshmen. They carried that buy-in throughout their careers and embraced the journey to get to where they are. I am so proud of the growth these women displayed on and off the field and was excited to see how this season would play out for these two in particular. It's a shame they could not see the benefits in their senior seasons, but I know they will do great things in their next chapters."