Bucknell University
Bloomsburg
Bucknell Softball Shut Out by Bloomsburg, 2-0
4/10/2007 8:00:00 AM | Softball
April 10, 2007
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - Three Bloomsburg pitchers combined on a two-hit shutout as the Bucknell softball team dropped a single game, 2-0, to the Huskies Tuesday evening at Jan Hutchinson Field. The Bison's hits were courtesy of Erin Curatola (River Edge, N.J./River Dell) and Kristin Frick (West Chester, Pa./Bishop Shanahan).
Like Bloomsburg (19-7), a perennial Division II power, Bucknell used three pitchers in the game that was added to the schedule after this past weekend's four-game series at Colgate was cancelled. The Bison trio struck out seven and yielded just seven hits. However, the Huskies had at least two batters reach base every inning after a 1-2-3 first. They tallied single runs in the fourth and sixth for the only scoring in the contest.
Christie Wiest (Centre Hall, Pa./Penns Valley) pitched the first three innings for Bucknell (7-21) and left with the score tied 0-0. She gave up just three hits and struck out four. Katie McDonald (York, Pa./West York Area) (2-5) entered the game in the fourth inning and gave up just two hits and two walks as she faced each hitter in the lineup once in her two innings of work. However, she yielded up a one-out solo home run to Missy Bachert in the fourth that proved to be the only run Bloomsburg would need.
The Huskies added an insurance run in the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Tara Reed off Meaghan Haley (Henderson, Nev./Green Valley). Haley easily retired the first two batters in the inning before a hit by pitch sandwiched between two singles.
Bucknell managed just one baserunner in the first four innings and that was Curatola in the first when she reached on the first of Bloomsburg's four errors. Reed started and did not allow a hit in her 3.0 innings of work.
Frick picked up Bucknell's first hit with a single in the fifth against Ashley Lynn (11-1), who had retired the first four hitters she faced. She totaled five of the Huskies' 12 strikeouts during her three innings.
The Bison did threaten in the seventh as both Lauren Litts (East Stroudsburg, Pa./East Stroudsburg) and Frick reached base when they struck out and the catcher dropped the third strike. However, pitcher Sheelin Fisher struck out Ashley Beans (Hanover, Pa./Hanover) and Shelly McCormack (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood) to end the inning with four strikeouts and pick up her first save of the season despite allowing the potential go-ahead run come to the plate.
Bucknell will return to Patriot League play this weekend when it hosts Lehigh in a four-game series with doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday. In between games of Saturday's twinbill the 1997 Patriot League Championship team will be honored.
