The 2024 season for the New Haven softball team has been filled with struggle, but the Chargers can find solace in the fact that the bat of Cranston West graduate Meg Anderson is consistently finding the ball.

The senior infielder is far and away the leading hitter on the New Haven roster, outpacing her nearest qualifying teammate by 70 points by posting a .333 average inside the box along with six doubles and 11 runs batted in.

Anderson has also had the opportunity to provide some much-needed power amongst a lineup that has lacked it, drilling one of only two home runs that the Chargers have launched to date in a Friday meeting versus Saint Anselm.

Leading off the New Haven half of the seventh against the Hawks, the former Falcon took Sam Ryan deep for her fourth hit of the afternoon to tie the contest at eight apiece and force extra innings, falling a triple shy of the cycle in the process.

Despite Anderson’s sterling performance at the dish, the Chargers were unable to claim victory as Saint Anselm’s Rose Reitmeyer responded in the top of the eighth with a dinger of her own that stood up as the decisive run in a 9-8 final result.

New Haven was back at it the following day as they split a doubleheader with Southern New Hampshire, getting blanked by the Penmen 5-0 in the first game before taking the nightcap 4-0, thanks in part to a pair of runs driven in by Anderson.

The triumph improved the Chargers’ mark to 5-25 on the campaign going into two twinbills this week, closing out a six-game homestand Wednesday afternoon against non-league opponent Post and resuming Northeast-10 play versus Pace on Friday.

Cranston native and Hendricken alum Justin DeBalsi has emerged as a source of goals on the lacrosse field for Salve Regina this spring, ensconcing himself as one of a half-dozen Seahawks to reach double figures on the campaign.

After waiting his turn to make an impact the previous two seasons, the ex-Hawk is contributing regularly for the first time since arriving on campus, notching 17 tallies to tie Liam Cooney for fifth on the Salve scoring chart.

DeBalsi has picked up a hat-trick on three occasions, accomplishing the feat against Kean, Clark and UMass-Boston, finding the net a season-high four times versus the former on March 2 as the Seahawks dealt the Cougars a 13-10 defeat.

Over the course of the season, the junior has also shown off other aspects to his game, providing four assists and scooping up ten ground balls, three of which were logged in a 13-11 setback to Wheaton on April 6.

In their most recent outing, Salve fell to 4-7 on the year last Saturday after sustaining an 18-9 loss to 13th-ranked Babson in their home finale, with the Beavers enjoying four-goal outputs from Jacob Tauss and Jared Rainville.

With a pair of road trips left on the docket, the Seahawks will be hoping to clinch a berth in next month’s NEWMAC tournament, but standing in their way are remaining opponents Springfield and MIT, both currently 3-2 in conference play alongside Salve.

The stretch run begins at high noon this Saturday with a journey to western Massachusetts to face the Pride, with the Seahawks definitively learning their fate a week to the day later against the Engineers.