Cailin Cavanaugh and Michael Coppa Named Goldey-Beacom April Athletes of the Month
PIKE CREEK, Del. – Sophomore softball player Cailin Cavanaugh and freshman golfer Michael Coppa have been named the Goldey-Beacom College April female and male athletes of the month, it was announced by the GBC athletic office on Sat., May 1.
A Newark, Del. native from local Newark High School, Cavanaugh batted .385 during the month of April and collected 25 hits, 12 runs scored and 11 runs batted in. The standout centerfielder also had 33 putouts and two assists to just three errors in a 23-game stretch that saw the Lightning go 7-16.
In the first game of a doubleheader against Bloomfield on Apr. 3, Cavanaugh threw out a base-runner trying to stretch a single into a double for the crucial first out of the top of the seventh inning to help the Lightning preserve a one-run lead and win the game, 4-3.
Cavanaugh hit safely in 17 of 23 games in April, including eight games with two hits. She also had two triples and three doubles.
Her three-bagger against Philadelphia in game one of the doubleheader on Apr. 15 knocked in two runs, and Cavanaugh came in to score the Lightning’s third run and tie the score before GBC eventually went on to lose, 4-3. Cavanaugh’s second triple of the month came in game one of the Lightning’s doubleheader against Nyack on Apr. 20. This one also plated two runs, and Cavanaugh was driven home for the winning run in a thrilling, 3-2 GBC victory.
Coppa, a Hampstead, Md. native out of North Carroll HS, had a terrific month of April for the Lightning golf team as they earned a berth in the NCAA Regional championship for the fifth time in six years.
He was most impressive at the Edwin B. Cottrell Invitational hosted by West Chester at Penn Oaks Golf Club on Apr. 4-5. There he finished second in a field of over 50 golfers to help GBC to a sixth-place finish. Coppa forced a sudden-death playoff round with the defending Division II individual national champion, Gavin Smith (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) when the two were tied at 148 after two rounds of golf. The senior, Smith, outlasted Coppa only when he birdied the final sudden-death hole.
