Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Baseball Begins Patriot League Play at Home This Weekend Against Lehigh
3/31/2006 7:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 31, 2006
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Coming off a 5-4 win over Mount St. Mary's, the Bucknell baseball team will begin Patriot League play this weekend, April 1-2, with a four game series at home against Lehigh. The Bison, who were picked third in the Patriot League preseason poll, are 7-14 on the year, while the Mountain Hawks enter the weekend with a record of 10-15 and were picked to finish second in the preseason rankings.
Bucknell has a 67-62 record against Lehigh in a series that began in 1901, but has come up short in four of the last five meetings between the squads. In 2005, the Mountain Hawks three games from the Bison during the regular season, with the Orange and Blue escaping the sweep with a 14-1 victory in game two of the first doubleheader. Bucknell will also be looking to avenge a loss in the 2005 Patriot League Tournament where Lehigh handed the Bison a 5-2 setback to end the season.
Game one will feature a rematch of the starters from last year's postseason contest as junior right-hander Matt Curry (Towanda, Pa./Towanda) is slated to start for the Bison and Kyle Collina will get the call for the Mountain Hawks. In two career starts against Lehigh, Curry is 0-2 with a 4.39 ERA with 11 walks and two strikeouts. So far this season, Curry is 1-4 and ranks fourth in the Patriot League with a 2.51 ERA. In his last start, Curry collected his first victory of the season, 2-1 over Stony Brook, as he allowed one run on six hits with no walks and two strikeouts in a complete game effort. Collina has a 2-0 career record against the Bison and has a 1.80 ERA over 20 innings versus the Orange and Blue with five walks and 18 strikeouts. In his seven starts of 2005, Collina is 3-3 with a 4.97 ERA and opposing hitters are batting .257 against him.
Two lefties will face off in game two with senior Jacob Moss (Fresno, Calif./San Joaquin Memorial) and Jed Davitt expected to start for Bucknell and Lehigh. Moss will look to improve to 3-0 on the season as he currently has two wins in three starts with a 2.37 ERA. Davitt is 1-2 on the season with a 3.00 ERA with two starts and eight appearances.
In the opener of Sunday's doubleheader, sophomore Mathew Wilson (Toronto, Ontario/Northern S.S.) (0-1) will make his second-career start for the Bison after beginning the 2005 season with strong numbers. Among the members of the Bucknell pitching staff who have thrown more than five innings, Wilson has a team-best ERA of 0.60, with just one earned run allowed over 15 innings. Opposing hitters are batting just .212 against Wilson, as well. Bison hitters will get their second look at Joe Matteo as the team enjoyed success against him during his freshman season in the 14-1 victory, with 10 hits, five runs and four walks in five innings. Matteo is 2-3 on the year with a 5.34 ERA in 32 innings of work.
To close out the series, junior Nathan Mittag (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield) is scheduled to throw for Bucknell and Billy Alec for Lehigh. Mittag has a record of 1-3 with a 5.73 ERA in 22 innings so far this year and received a no-decision in his one career start against the Mountain Hawks after allowing three runs, two earned, on nine hits in six innings with two walks and two strikeouts. Alec will make his first career outing on the mound against the Bison. He is 2-1 on the season with a 7.08 ERA in 20.1 innings and has made seven appearances, three starts.
As a whole, the Bucknell pitching staff has an ERA of 4.10, second to only Army in the Patriot League. Lehigh ranks fifth in the league in pitching with an ERA of 5.92 through 25 games.
The Mountain Hawks lead the Patriot League with a .306 team batting average, while Bucknell ranks sixth, hitting .264 as a squad. In individual batting, Lehigh's Matt McBride is tops in the league, hitting .500 with eight doubles, seven home runs and 28 RBI. For the Bison, seniors Kyle Walter (Mifflinburg, Pa./Mifflinburg Area) and Chris Grandizio (Bloomsburg, Pa./Bloomsburg) rank seventh and eighth in the league with batting averages of .359 and .358, respectively. Walter is tied for the league lead in triples with three, tied for sixth in stolen bases with a career-high of seven, sixth in total bases (46) and third in slugging percentage (.590), while Grandizio is tied for first in doubles with eight. Walter also has a squad-best 13 runs scored and 14 RBI on the year.
Both doubleheaders this weekend will start at noon at Bucknell's Depew field.
