Bucknell University Athletics
Bob Donato Receives Senior Athletic Award at Bucknell
5/1/2012 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 1, 2012
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell senior Bob Donato (Wiliamsport, Pa./Williamsport), a member of the Bison baseball team, received a special award at the University's annual Senior Athletic Awards Banquet, sponsored by the Bison Club and held at the Elaine Langone Center on Tuesday, May 1.
Donato won the John F. Zeller Award, presented to a senior athlete "for outstanding contributions to Bison Athletics, while exemplifying the best of Bucknell in the manner that John Zeller did in his 68 years of service to the University."
In addition to Donato, several other student-athletes were honored at the banquet, including the winners of the Christy Mathewson Award, given to the most outstanding athletes in the senior class.
A four-year starter in the Bison outfield, Donato was Bucknell's top offensive player in 2012, leading the team in batting average (.362), runs (32), hits (64), doubles (16), home runs (6), RBIs (31), total bases (100), slugging percentage (.565), walks (25), on-base percentage (.444) and stolen bases (8). He was hitting above .400 as late as April 10 and put together a 21-game hitting streak from Feb. 18 to April 4. Overall, Donato had at least one hit in 38 of 46 games played this year.
Donato posted a team-high 19 multi-hit games as a senior, was second on the squad with six multi-RBI outings and he reached base in all but two games this season. Perhaps Donato's best game this spring was a Feb. 25 contest at James Madison when he was 4-for-7 with eight RBIs, two home runs and three runs scored. He tied the program record for RBIs in a single game and came one hit shy of equaling Doug Shribman's total bases mark (12).
A Second Team All-Patriot League selection in 2011, Donato will graduate ranked in the top 10 on 11 Bison career record lists: doubles (1st, 56), games played (3rd, 186), total bases (3rd, 347), at bats (3rd, 677), games started (t-3rd, 179), hits (t-3rd, 210), home runs (4th, 23), sacrifice flies (6th, 9), walks (t-7th, 68) runs (8th, 129) and RBIs (10th, 105).
Bucknell is a highly selective, privately endowed liberal arts institution with an enrollment of approximately 3,500 undergraduate students. Bucknell competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the Patriot League and has full membership along with American, Army, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh and Navy. Bucknell has won the Presidents' Cup, signifying the Patriot League's all-sports champion, in 17 of 21 years, including 13 of the last 14.
