Bison Softball Returns to Road for La Salle, Colgate
4/1/2013 8:00:00 AM | Softball
April 1, 2013
LEWISBURG, Pa. - After playing six games last week, Bucknell softball gets right back in the saddle on Tuesday with a doubleheader at La Salle, scheduled for 3 p.m. in Philadelphia. The non-conference twinbill is just the beginning, however, as the Bison (7-20, 1-3 PL) will continue road play at Colgate for doubleheaders Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (12 p.m.) in Hamilton, N.Y. Live stats for the midweek meeting with La Salle will be available at goexplorers.com.
Bucknell's first week playing on its home turf at Becker Field did not go quite as planned as it won just one of six. Different Bison contributed in different ways each time out. Against Drexel, Cydnee Sanders hit 5-for-6 in the two games, bringing her season total for multi-hit games up to a team-best six. By the end of the week, Sanders was hitting .309 (21-68), which is also a team high.
Mariah Midyette entered the series with Drexel having reached base in 10 straight games. That streak ended against the Dragons, but the freshman picked right back up where she left off when Bucknell hosted Lehigh over the weekend. With her performance in the first Patriot League series of her career, Midyette has now reached safely in 14 of her last 16 games. She is batting .317 (13-41) with seven walks during that stretch.
Midyette enters the new week leading Bucknell in runs scored (12), runs batted in (11) and walks (14). She is also among the team's best in stolen bases, working at a 3-for-4 clip, and is third in batting average (.271). She is the only Bison to play in all 27 games this season and has started each of those in center field.
Bucknell had some of its best results against Lehigh in the second game of each doubleheader. On Friday, the Bison won 2-1 before the game was called for darkness. Tori Robinson and Kristen Zahn each had RBI hits late in the game to push Bucknell in front. On Saturday, the Bison led 1-0 for much of the game and Amanda Fazio took a shutout into the seventh inning. Accounting for Bucknell's run in that game was also Zahn who led off with a double and scored on Mary Horton's sacrifice bunt.
The Bison will look to take their success and lessons learned from meeting with Lehigh into its next set of games this week. First up on the schedule is La Salle, which enters its week at 10-11 overall and 1-5 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Explorers have lost seven of their last eight games, including each of their last five by a combined score of 39-3. Even with the recent streak, they have already exceeded their total from a year ago when they finished the season with an overall record of 9-40.
Now under first-year head coach Ron Shoemaker, La Salle is led by Casey Lester as one of three Explorers batting better than .300. Lester enters the week at .352 (20-56). Alicia Aughton was named to the A10 All-Rookie Team last season and is now 7-7 with a 3.86 ERA. The sophomore also has four shutouts and 45 strikeouts on the year.
When Bucknell and La Salle split last year's doubleheader, the series went to 7-3-1 in favor of the Explorers. The first game of 2012 went to La Salle by a 1-0 score after Aughton connected for an RBI double in the fourth inning. Game two went to the Bison, 5-2, as Horton hit 2-for-4 and Sanders was 2-for-3. Bucknell came back from a 2-0 deficit with all five of its runs coming in the fifth and sixth innings.
Colgate also has a new head coach this season. Under Melissa Finley, the Raiders are 7-17 overall and 2-2 in the Patriot League after splitting with Army last weekend. Army won Saturday's games 4-3 (13 inn.) and 5-3 before Colgate returned the favor on Sunday with 3-2 and 7-2 decisions. Mariel Schlaefer is hitting .406 (26-64) on the year and .600 (9-15) in that conference series. Pitchers Brigit Ieuter and Courtney O'Connell have also seen their share of success as both have 3-6 records. Ieuter's ERA comes in at 2.79, while O'Connell is at 3.37. Those ERAs both drop below 2.00 in Patriot League play.
Colgate finished its 2012 campaign at 19-28 overall and 12-8 in the league. The Raiders were picked third in this year's Patriot League Preseason Poll, and Emmie Dolfi and Tera Vaugn were both Preseason All-League picks. Vaugn was a Second Team All-Patriot League selection last year as a sophomore, as was O'Connell.
Bucknell will be looking for its first win over Colgate since the 2010 Patriot League Tournament. The Bison beat the Raiders 4-3 (9 innings) and 6-4 in the championship round to earn the program's first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. Bucknell also won the regular-season series, 3-1. Since that postseason run, however, the Bison are 0-8 against the Raiders.