Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Baseball Plays Final Patriot League Road Series this Weekend at Lehigh
4/22/2011 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 22, 2011
LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Bucknell baseball team will play a critical four-game Patriot League series this weekend at Lehigh's Goodman Campus. The Bison enter the weekend two games behind the Mountain Hawks for the fourth and final Patriot League Tournament berth and three games behind the first-place logjam of Army, Navy and Lafayette.
Bucknell, which is coming off a Wednesday doubleheader split against Towson, is 17-23 overall and 4-8 in Patriot League play. The Bison have won two of their last three games and four of their last seven.
Doubleheaders both Saturday and Sunday will begin at noon.
Bucknell Baseball Notebook (17-23, 4-8 PL)
• Bucknell enters this weekend's series coming off a doubleheader split with Towson at Depew Field. The Tigers won game one 7-1, while the Bison claimed game two behind a pair of home runs from Bob Donato.
• Bucknell enters this weekend three wins shy of posting its fourth consecutive 20-win campaign. The Bison have not posted four straight 20-win seasons since accomplishing the feat six consecutive years from 1996 to 2001.
• Bucknell's win over Towson on Wednesday was the 1,200th in program history. Overall, the Bison are 1,200-1,388-19 since their first game in 1886.
• Bob Donato posted his first career multi-home run game when he hit two in the nightcap of Wednesday's doubleheader against Towson. He now has eight home runs this year to rank second on the team to Doug Shribman, while his 15 career home runs place him tied for 14th in program history.
• Donato became the third different Bison to post a two-home run game this year Wednesday vs. Towson. He joined Shribman, who has accomplished the feat twice, and Travis Clark, who had a two-homer game two weeks ago at Holy Cross. Last year, Bucknell players totaled seven multi-homer contests, including four by Shribman.
• In a 15-7 win at Navy on Monday, senior outfielder Drew Constable drove in a career-high seven runs. He had just seven RBIs in his first 31 games played. Constable came one shy of the program record for RBIs in a game (8), last recorded by Frank Fresconi in 2000 against Army.
• A number of younger players got a chance to see plenty of playing time in game one against Towson on Wednesday. The Bison started a lineup that included five freshmen, three sophomores and a junior. Additionally, freshman Jack McLinden earned the start on the mound. Sophomore Scott Glass hit his first career home run to provide the only scoring in the game for Bucknell.
• Gerry Runyan continues to lead the Bison in hitting (.348) and he ranks fifth in the Patriot League. He currently has a six-game hitting streak, two games shy of his season best. He has posted two hits in each of his last four games and leads the team with 16 multi-hit contests. Runyan is 8-for-16 (.500) over his last four games.
• Bucknell's team ERA is 4.22 over its last 36 games. The Bison have yielded just 172 runs over that span after allowing 91 in their first four contests of the season.
• Senior lefty Eric Jarrett has been strong since the conclusion of the season-opening four-game series at James Madison. Over his eight appearances since the end of that series he owns a 2.25 ERA, allowing just three hits and a pair of earned runs in 8.0 innings. Opponents are hitting .120 off him during that span.
• Alex Cillo has allowed just one earned run in his last 24.1 innings, while Ryan Ebner has yielded no more than two runs in five of his last six starts. Ebner is a team-best 5-1 this year. He has earned the win in eight of Bucknell's last 20 victories.
• Ebner's .221 batting average against leads the Patriot League by .030. He has allowed just 38 hits in 47.2 innings.
• Drew Constable and David Duffett have both excelled this season when leading off an inning. Constable has reached base 16 out of 33 times (.485), while Duffett has reached in 18 of 37 chances (.486).
• Freshman catcher Justin Meier, the Patriot League Rookie of the Week, has 10 hits this season and seven have come with runners in scoring position. He has four RBIs this year, tied with Luke Lombardi for most among Bison freshmen.
• Bucknell is 7-1 this year when Ebner starts, 9-3 when Constable hits sixth and 10-8 when Duffett hits fifth.
• Bucknell is 13-0 this year when leading after six innings.
• Senior first baseman Doug Shribman ranks in the top 10 in program history in a number of offensive categories: slugging percentage (2nd, .650), on-base percentage (10th, .424), games started (t-8th, 144), at bats (8th, 529), hits (9th, 178), doubles (3rd, 41), home runs (1st, 39), RBIs (2nd, 139), total bases (2nd, 344) and walks (8th, 66).
Bucknell 2011 Awards/Honors
• Patriot League Player of the Week
Bob Donato (2/28), Doug Shribman (3/7)
• Patriot League Pitcher of the Week
Jack Boehm (2/28), Trey Frahler (3/14), Ryan Ebner (3/21, 3/28)
• Patriot League Rookie of the Week
Colby Vanderbeck (2/28), Justin Meier (4/19)
Bucknell vs. Lehigh
• Bucknell and Lehigh have played 152 times and the all-time series is tied at 76-76.
• Each of the last five years the visiting team has won the four-game series 3-1.
• Doug Shribman hit .429 with three home runs and six RBIs in four games against Lehigh in 2010.
About Lehigh
• Lehigh is 22-15 overall this year and 6-6 in Patriot League play. The Mountain Hawks are currently in fourth place in the Patriot League standings, just one game out of first. They claimed three of four against Army last weekend at Goodman Campus.
• Lehigh is 14-7 at home this year and is in the midst of a 10-game homestand.
• Lehigh is hitting .290 as a team and has a 5.43 ERA. The Mountain Hawks are leading the Patriot League in hitting.
Up Next
• Bucknell will play its final non-league home game of the season on Tuesday, April 26, when it hosts Mount St. Mary's at 3:30 p.m. The contest was originally scheduled for March 23, but inclement weather forced its postponement. The Bison will wrap up Patriot League play April 30-May 1 at home against Army. All four games in that series will be broadcast on WVBU 90.5 and SportsJuice.com. Senior Day ceremonies will be held before the Saturday (April 30) doubleheader.
