Coaches

Sarah Caffrey

Sarah Caffrey, a former standout pitcher at Jacksonville University who spent five years as the lead assistant coach at Penn State, was named head softball coach at Bucknell by Director of Athletics and Recreation Jermaine Truax on August 21, 2020. She recently completed her third season at the helm of the Bison softball program.


In 2023, Caffrey doubled the win total from 2022, despite missing nine games to weather cancelation, by going 16-30 overall and 8-10 in Patriot League play. The program returned to Patriot League Tournament competition for the first time under Caffrey and the first time since 2019. Bucknell won its last six conference games by sweeping Holy Cross and Lafayette to pull out the fourth and final seed. The result exceeded the preseason selection of sixth place.


Bucknell placed three players on All-League teams (Zoie Smith on First Team at Catcher and Savannah Jones/Chase Knapp on Second Team at "At-Large" and Shortstop) and Zoie Smith made the Academic All-League Team.


Caffrey guided the pitching staff to a team ERA of 3.50. Olivia Marinelli shined by averaging more than one strikeout per inning. Madison Roukey earned Patriot League Pitcher of the Week and became the first Bison pitcher since 2020 to toss double-digit strikeouts in a game.


Caffrey's work with Smith at catcher paid immediate dividends as the junior backstop shined, committing only two errors in over 180 chances and throwing out five base stealers.


Caffrey guided Bucknell to a 12-18-1 overall record in her first season, which was shortened due to the COVID-19 public health threat. Bucknell finished with a 9-14-1 mark in Patriot League play, and the Bison placed players on both the All-Patriot League First Team and the Academic All-League Team.


Bucknell jumped out to a hot start in 2021, winning seven of the first eight games in Patriot League play. The Bison just narrowly missed qualifying for the four-team Patriot League Tournament, finishing fifth overall in the standings.


Caffrey has coached in the collegiate ranks since graduating from Jacksonville in 2012. She started as a volunteer assistant at Texas Tech, then spent two years as the first assistant at Utah State, where she helped All-Mountain West pitcher Noelle Johnson break the school's single-season strikeout record.


In August 2015, Caffrey was hired at Penn State, where she served as the Nittany Lions' pitching coach and recruiting coordinator under head coach Amanda Lehotak, who was also Caffrey's college coach at Jacksonville. At Penn State, Caffrey also had duties in the areas of scouting, academic enhancement, external relations, and camps. She was part of a staff that brought in the nation's 11th-ranked recruiting class in 2019, according to Extra Innings Softball, and that season she mentored a pitching staff comprised primarily of first-year players to the lowest team earned-run average and most strikeouts in eight years. In the abbreviated 2020 season, sophomore Bailey Parshall ranked eighth nationally in strikeouts and 15th in strikeout-to-walk ratio.


In the summer of 2020, Caffrey served as Penn State's interim head coach amid a change in leadership.