Softball | 5/12/2025 12:24:00 PM

PITTSFORD, N.Y. – St. John Fisher softball senior pitcher Ainsley Evanetski, sophomore slugger Emily McManus and head coach Bari Mance have won major Empire 8 awards for the 2025 season, the conference office announced on Monday. 

The E8 named Evanetski its Pitcher of the Year and McManus its Player of the Year. Mance and her coaching staff won the conference's Coaching Staff of the Year award. 

Additionally, seven Cardinals earned All-Empire 8 honors, with Evanetski, McManus and senior catcher Mari Spitz garnering first-team spots. Sophomore Taylor Shackleton (first base) and senior Amalia DeMartino (shortstop) earned second-team honors; seniors Cassidy Ormond (pitcher) and Maddie Donlin (outfield) landed on the All-E8 third team. 

Senior Liv Godley was selected as Fisher's Sportswoman of the Year. One member of each team was named that institution's representative on the 2025 Empire 8 Softball Sportswoman of the Year Team. 

Evanetski, who ranks fourth in Fisher's record book with 458 career strikeouts, went 14-7 with a 2.45 earned-run average this season. The sixth player in program history to be named E8 Pitcher of the Year, she led the conference in complete games (19) and finished second in strikeouts (173). 

The National Fastpitch Coaches Association named Evanetski the DIII Pitcher of the Week on April 14 after she struck out a career-high 18 batters in a 7-2 win against Elmira and threw a perfect game in a 4-0 win over Keuka. She struck out 14 of the 21 batters she faced in the perfect game, including the first 10 in a row.

McManus led the Cardinals in batting average (.445), hits (53), home runs (15), slugging percentage (.908) and walks taken (25). She drove in 44 runs, finishing just behind Spitz, who led the team with a single-season Fisher record 51 RBI. 

McManus, the eighth player in program history to win E8 Player of the Year, broke Fisher's single-season record for home runs with a solo shot against Alfred in the Empire 8 Conference Championship Tournament last Friday. 

Mance and assistant coaches Renee Smith, Sydney Bolton and Shayla Mills led Fisher to an 18-4 mark in league play, a share of the regular season title and the right to host the E8 Championship Tournament in 2025. The Cardinals finished 29-15 overall. 

Mance has been named E8 Coach of the Year three times in her 12 years leading the Fisher program.