Bucknell University
Lafayette
Bucknell Softball Opens Patriot League Play with Doubleheader Split at Lafayette
3/29/2008 8:00:00 AM | Softball
March 29, 2008
Game 1 Box Score: Bucknell 4, Lafayette 0
Game 2 Box Score: Lafayette 6, Bucknell 5
EASTON, Pa. - Christie Wiest (Centre Hall, Pa./Penns Valley) pitched a complete game five-hit shutout to help the Bucknell softball team win its first Patriot League game of the 2008 season 4-0 Saturday afternoon over Lafayette at Metzgar Fields. The Leopards took game two, coming back from a 5-2 deficit to win 6-5 over the Bison.
Wiest, who pitched 8.1 scoreless innings in the doubleheader, registered her sixth career shutout and improved to 5-9 on the season. Bucknell is now 7-19 overall and 1-1 in Patriot League play after the doubleheader split. Lafayette is 6-11, 1-1 Patriot League.
Wiest was solid in the first game, allowing just one Leopard runner to get as far as third base. Lafayette's biggest threats came in the second, fourth and seventh innings when it had two runners reach base, but it was unable to push a run across against Wiest, who struck out six and saw her ERA drop to 2.17.
The Bison offense came up big in the middle innings as it scored one run in the third and fourth innings and two more in the fifth. The big blow was a leadoff home run in the fourth inning by Cassie Lloyd (Mifflinburg, Pa./Mifflinburg). It was her third home run of the season, and the fifth of her career, moving her into a tie for 10th place on the Bucknell all-time home run list with Stephanie Morgan. All three of Lloyd's home runs this season have come in the last six games.
Erin Curatola (River Edge, N.J./River Dell) and Mary Pavlovich (Johnstown, Pa./Richland), who was 3-for-3 and reached base four times, each had RBI singles in the contest. Pavlovich's run-scoring single was the third consecutive hit to open the fifth inning and it knocked Lafayette starter Kasey Karr (2-5) from the game. Reliever Ali Henry came in and retired the side and limited the Bison to two hits over the final three innings, although she did walk three batters.
Pavlovich, Lloyd, who was 2-for-4, and Lauren Fry (South Plainfield, N.J./South Plainfield), who was 2-for-4 with two runs scored, each had multiple hits in game one for Bucknell. Fry, who added a single in game two, extended her hitting streak to four games, while Pavlovich recorded a first-inning single in game two to extend her streak to a team-best five consecutive contests with at least one hit. Bucknell registered 10 hits in game one, the fifth time it has reached double figures this season.
The Bison bats stayed hot early in game two as they went up 5-2 after the top of the second inning, but Bucknell managed just two of its eight hits over the final five innings. Henry (3-4) retired 14 of the final 15 hitters she faced.
Curatola drove in a run with an RBI single in the first inning, but Lafayette scored for the first time in the bottom of the first on a two-run single by Christina Giambrone of Bison starter Katie McDonald (York, Pa./West York Area).
Bucknell jumped back on top with four runs in the second, thanks to four singles and an error on Lafayette allowed five of the first six hitters to reach base. Ashley Carlson (Fairless Hills, Pa./Pennsbury), who has hits in eight of her last 10 games, drove in two runs with a one-out single, while Fry and Elyse Colmenero (Fresno, Calif./Central) also posted RBI singles in the frame.
The top four hitters in the Bison lineup accounted for five of the team's eight hits in the contest, with Carlson's 2-for-4 performance the only multiple-hit showing in the game.
Giambrone keyed the Lafayette offense, going 3-for-3 with four runs batted in and one run scored. She had doubles in both the fourth and fifth innings, including one that drove in a pair of insurance runs in the fifth.
McDonald (2-8) pitched 4.2 innings in game two, yielding six hits and al six runs. She also walked two and struck out five, giving her 26 this year, just nine shy of her total from all of last year.
After there was just one error committed in game one, the teams combined for five in game two, with the Leopards registering three. However, there was just one unearned run scored in the doubleheader.
With its win in game one, Bucknell has now won its Patriot League opener each of the last two years after going through a five-year from 2002 to 2006 where it lost its league opener.
The Bison and Leopards will wrap up their four-game weekend series with another doubleheader Sunday. First pitch is slated for 12 p.m.
