Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Baseball Set for Patriot League Tournament This Weekend
5/11/2006 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
Video Webcast
May 11, 2006
LEWISBURG, Pa. - This weekend the Bucknell baseball team will vie for its fourth Patriot League Championship as the Bison will travel to the campus of Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pa., for the Patriot League Tournament this Saturday and Sunday, May 12-13. Bucknell is the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will face No. 3 Lafayette in a single elimination game on Saturday at noon for the right to face the host Mountain Hawks in a best-of-three championship series, with game one of the championship immediately following the play-in game.
Live audio for any and all of the Bison's Patriot League Tournament games will be available on www.GoLeopards.com.
The contest between the Orange and Blue and the Leopards will be the sixth meeting between the teams this season, making Lafayette Bucknell's most-faced opponent of 2006. So far this year, the Bison are 3-2 against the Leopards, winning the first contest, 8-6, when the squads met at the Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic in Fresno, Calif., on March 16. In the regular season four-game league series, Bucknell took the final two, 10-9 and 11-5 to pull out the split.
Junior Matt Curry (Towanda, Pa./Towanda) is slated to make his 11th start this year on the mound for the Bison on Saturday. The right-hander comes into the contest against the Leopards holding a 3-6 record and a 2.98 ERA with 26 strikeouts and 10 walks in 57.1 innings of work. In his last outing, Curry picked up a win over Navy, pitching five innings and combining with sophomore Jason Buursma (Seattle, Wash./Lakeside School) to shut out the Mids, 3-0. His counterpart for the Leopards will be right-hander Matt Revelle who finished the regular season with a 6-3 record, a 3.37 ERA, 31 strikeouts and 15 walks. Last time he faced the Bison, Revelle picked up a 3-2 victory after allowing two runs on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts, in a complete game effort. Curry pitched in that contest, as well, and took the loss despite allowing just three runs, two earned, on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
Offensively Bucknell will look to All-League first team selections sophomore Chris Pieper (Port Washington, N.Y./Schreiber) and senior Matt Capece (Bowie, Md./DeMatha Catholic) to continue their success against Lafayette as Pieper is hitting .438 (7-for-16) and Capece is batting .400 (8-for-20) against the Leopards this year. Pieper finished the regular season with a .407 average, 16 runs scored, six doubles, two triples, two home runs and 18 RBI in 33 games. Starting all but one game this year, Capece hit .345 with 29 runs scored, eight doubles, a triple, 25 RBI and led the team in stolen bases with 17. He also posted a league-best batting average of .447 against league opponents. In the overall stats, four-time All-Patriot League honoree Kyle Walter (Mifflinburg, Pa./Mifflinburg Area) ranks first on the squad in batting average (.348), runs scored (32), doubles (17) and RBI (36).
For Lafayette, James Conrad and Tom Hayes performed well against the Bison during the regular season. Conrad hit .471 (8-for-17) when facing Bucknell with five runs scored and an RBI. Overall on the year, he is batting .333 with 30 runs scored, three doubles, two triples and 10 RBI. Hayes, who is second on the Leopards in overall batting average at .359, hit .333 (6-for-18) in five games against the Orange and Blue. He has seen action in 40 games with 35 starts, posting 22 runs scored and 19 RBI. Mike Raible is batting a team-best .367 on the year with 24 runs scored and 21 RBI, but the Bucknell pitching staff was able to limit him to one hit in five at bats during the season series.
