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Pelegreen

Sara Pelegreen

Sara Pelegreen enters her fifth season as the Cardinal's Head Softball Coach in 2024, and her second year of her current second stint with the team.

In her return to the softball program in 2023, Pelegreen led the Cardinals to a 7-43 record and a 5-27 record in MEC play as they continued their growing process. The Cardinals got off to a strong start in MEC play, splitting their opening weekend of conference play against Notre Dame College and Alderson Broaddus. Under Pelegreen, junior Maddie Munoz earned the first All-MEC honors of her career, taking home a Second Team All-MEC award after leading the MEC with nine triples. The Cardinals also saw success in the classroom under Pelegreen, with a program record 13 players earning NFCA Scholar All-American honors.

Over the last three seasons, Pelegreen spent time as an assistant softball coach with the Robert Morris University softball team from 2019 – 2022. During her tenure as assistant coach, Pelegreen helped the Colonials to a combined 64-51 record and made two appearances in the conference tournament. The 2022 season saw the team go 31-21 overall and make their first-ever appearance in the Horizon League Tournament (HLSB). They secured their first-ever HLSB tournament win against Youngstown State and finished as runners-up, falling to Oakland in the HLSB title game. 

Pelegreen guided the Cardinals to a 27-24 mark and their first-ever appearance in the MEC Tournament Championship game in 2018. WJU finished with a 20-11 record in the MEC and upset league-power West Virginia Wesleyan twice in the league tournament to advance to the conference title game. Four members of the team earned All-MEC, including pitcher Mallory Chapman, who notched her fourth all-conference honor and was later named a D2CCA First Team All-Region selection.

In her rookie campaign in 2017, Pelegreen’s Cardinals finished with an overall record of 23-25 and placed second in the MEC North Division for the third consecutive season at 17-15.

Pelegreen’s student-athletes earned an overall GPA of 3.30 in 2017. Several Cardinal players earned All-MEC Academic Honors (3.7 to 4.0 GPA) and eight others secured spots on the MEC Commissioner’s Honor Roll (3.25 to 3.69 GPA).    

As an assistant coach for two seasons, Pelegreen played an instrumental part in 78 Cardinal wins, which were the most wins by the softball team in a three-year period since the program was re-started in 2002. WJU pitchers in 2016 led the MEC with 324 strikeouts and tied for fourth in ERA (2.52), hits (381), runs (192), and earned runs (136) over 377.2 innings of work. The WJU staff also produced eight shutouts, four times more than before Pelegreen took over their direction.

Pelegreen arrived at Wheeling Jesuit following a successful playing career at MEC-rival West Virginia State. The Harrison Central High School graduate was a two-time All-West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference selection and a 2012 NCAA Division II All-Atlantic Region Second Team pitcher. She finished with a career 2.03 ERA and posted a 54-27 overall record holds the record for most saves.  As a senior, Pelegreen helped the Yellow Jackets claim the WVIAC Tournament Championship.

The Hopedale, Ohio native earned her bachelor's of science degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism from West Virginia State.
 
2017 23-25, 11-10 MEC Tournament Qualifier
2018 27-24, 20-11 MEC Tournament Qualifier, MEC Runner-ups
2019 12-38, 9-23
2023 7-43, 5-27
Total 69-130, 45-71 2X MEC Tournament Qualifier, 2018 MEC Runner-ups