Former Stoughton High Softball Standout a Star on the Field and in the Classroom at WPI

The following is adapted from a press release from WPI:

Stoughton's Erin Flaherty, a senior pitcher on the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) softball team, has been selected as a Division III Capital One Academic All-District honoree by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (Co-SIDA). Flaherty earned first team honors in District I, which is comprised of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and advances to the national ballot for All-America consideration.

The right-hander led the Engineers pitching staff with a record of 11-6 this season. Flaherty recorded 100 strikeouts, while posting a 2.71 earned run average (ERA).  She ranked among the leaders in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) in strikeouts (Tied-3rd); victories (Tied 4th); innings pitched (4th - 116.1); opposing batting average (6th - .232); and ERA (9th).

Earlier this season, Flaherty retired the first 20 batters she faced in a March 30 game at Clark University, . She received NEWMAC softball pitcher of the week honors for her performance.

Flaherty helped WPI to a record-setting season this spring, as the Engineers won 24 games and qualified for the NEWMAC Tournament for the first time since 2009.

Flaherty has also excelled in the classroom while at WPI, where the biology/biotechnology major has a 3.74 grade point average (GPA). She will be a three-time NEWMAC All-Academic team member when the 2012 team is revealed this upcoming week. 

Her Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) was "Campus Kitchens" - an anti-hunger organization, while her Major Qualifying Project (MQP) was a clinical trial of acute heart failure. According to the WPI website, "the Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) challenges students to address a problem that lies at the intersection of science or technology with society," while the "qualifying project in the major field of study (MQP) should demonstrate application of the skills, methods, and knowledge of the discipline to the solution of a problem that would be representative of the type to be encountered in one's career."

Flaherty's sufficiency project studied the impact of social Darwinism on Carnegie and Rockefeller.

Flaherty was a Two Towers nominee, an award given to an "outstanding member of the junior class" at WPI, and is a member of Mu Sigma Delta pre-medical fraternity.

She is a 2008 graduate of , where she was a standout softball player for the Black Knights and was a Hockomock League Scholar Athlete in her senior year.