Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Baseball Closes Regular Season this Weekend at First-Place Army
4/30/2010 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 30, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. - After three consecutive home weekends, the Bucknell baseball team closes its 2010 regular season this weekend with a four-game series at first-place Army. Saturday's doubleheader will begin at 12 p.m., while Sunday's is slated for 1 p.m. at Doubleday Field.
The Bison, who enter the weekend in fourth place in the league standings, must win at least one game to still have a shot at a postseason berth. Bucknell can finish in a tie for second in the league standings with a sweep and split in the Lehigh-Holy Cross series, but the highest postseason seed the Bison can claim is the No. 3 seed.
Army (23-13, 13-3 PL) has clinched the top seed in next month's Patriot League Tournament. The Black Knights are 10-2 in their last 12 games and bring a three-game winning streak into the weekend.
Bucknell Baseball Notebook (20-28, 7-9 PL)
• Bucknell is coming off a 9-8 non-league win over Keystone on Tuesday at Depew Field. Andrew Brouse singled through a drawn-in infield to complete a three-run bottom of the ninth inning comeback.
• Bucknell's win over Keystone was its 20th of the season. The Bison have now won at least 20 games three straight years for the first time since accomplishing the feat six consecutive years from 1996 to 2001.
• Ben Yoder enters the weekend with a chance to end the regular season leading the Patriot League in batting average. The senior is hitting .405 this year, .004 ahead of second-place Nick Ciardiello from Holy Cross. The last Bison to lead the league in hitting was Ben Stoll in 2003.
• Already the Bucknell record-holder for career home runs, Andrew Brouse is just one away from tying the Patriot League career standard. Brouse has hit 27 home runs in his career, one shy of the record currently shared by Army's Cole White (2005-08) and Lehigh's Jesse Novalis (2001-04). Brouse's 14 home runs this year are tied for first on Bucknell's single-season ledger with Frank Fresconi.
• Bucknell's 54 home runs this year is a new program record and leads the Patriot League by a wide margin. In fact, the other five Patriot League teams have combined for 110 home runs. Andrew Brouse (14 home runs), Doug Shribman (12) and Ben Yoder (10) rank 1-2-3 in the Patriot League in home runs this year. It is the first time in program history more than one Bison has belted at least 10 home runs.
• P/DH/OF Matt Lamore enters the weekend with a consecutive scoreless streak of 8.1 innings. He is second on the team with a 3.50 ERA and is allowing a team-best .169 batting average against.
• Bucknell continues to be the best fielding team in the Patriot League by a wide margin. The Bison have a .971 fielding percentage. Navy is second in the league with a .964 fielding percentage. Bucknell has made just 49 errors, while every other team in the league has piled up at least 60 miscues.
• Starting pitcher Dylan Seeley has been outstanding over his last two outings, yielding just one run in 14.0 innings of work. He pitched the only shutout of the season for the Bison two weeks ago against Navy and almost followed it with another, but gave up one run in the seventh inning to Lehigh this past Sunday. Seeley's 3.86 ERA is a career best and leads all Bucknell starters.
• Reliever Michael Dallanegra has not allowed a run in his last five outings, a span of 5.1 innings. He has held the opposition scoreless in 15 of his 18 appearances and his 2.25 ERA leads the team.
• Ben Allen, who has started 131 consecutive games at shortstop, enters the weekend 11 at bats shy of equaling the Bison single-season record for at bats. His team-high 64 hits place him in a tie for sixth on the single-season ledger, four shy of his career high.
• Bucknell players lead the Patriot League in seven offensive categories: Hits (Ben Allen, 64), Home Runs (Andrew Brouse, 14), Triples (Ben Allen, 6), Stolen Bases (Andrew Brouse, 16), Runs (Andrew Brouse, 49), Total Bases (Doug Shribman, 114), Slugging Percentage (Ben Yoder, .748).
• After six straight games where it failed to reach double figures in hits in early April, Bucknell has recorded at least 10 hits in a game in eight of the last 13 contests. The Bison have 22 double-figure hit outings this year.
• Bucknell had a streak of seven consecutive games with a home run snapped when it failed to hit one Tuesday vs. Keystone.
Bucknell 2010 Awards/Honors
• Patriot League Player of the Week
B. J. LaRosa (3/15), Andrew Brouse (3/22), Ben Yoder (4/19)
• Patriot League Pitcher of the Week
Dylan Seeley (3/22)
• Damon's Bison Athlete of the Week
B.J. LaRosa (3/15)
Bucknell vs. Army
• Bucknell is 36-52 all-time against Army.
• Bucknell is 8-3 against Army over the last two seasons, including 3-1 last year at Depew Field.
• Bucknell has won 14 of 19 meetings since 2006.
• The last time Bucknell played at Doubleday Field was in the 2008 Patriot League Tournament when the fourth-seeded Bison upset the top-seeded Black Knights. Then-freshman Drew Constable knocked in the only run in the 1-0 victory in the eighth inning of game three in the best-of-three semifinal series.
Up Next
• If Bucknell finishes in the top four of the final Patriot League standings, it will play in the Patriot League Tournament for the third straight year. The first-round series will take place May 15-16 at the home fields of the two top seeds. The championship series will take place May 22-23 at the home field of the highest remaining seed. All Patriot League Tournament series are best-of-three. The Bison can be no higher than the third seed in the four-team field and would play their first-round series on the road at Army, Holy Cross or Lehigh should they qualify.
