Bucknell University Athletics
Softball Faces Army in PL Tournament Opener
5/8/2013 8:00:00 AM | Softball
LEWISBURG, Pa. – After a two-year hiatus, Bucknell softball returns to the Patriot League Tournament on Thursday in Bethlehem, Pa. The No. 3 Bison will kick off their postseason with a 2:30 p.m. meeting with second-seeded Army as they try to avoid double-elimination and advance to Saturday's championship round. Also vying for the title will be top-seeded Lehigh and No. 4 Colgate. Each of Bucknell's games throughout the weekend will be broadcast live on SportsJuice.com.
PATRIOT LEAGUE TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Thursday, May 9
Game 1: #4 Colgate at #1 Lehigh – 12 p.m.
Game 2: #2 Army vs. #3 Bucknell – 2:30 p.m.
Friday, May 10
Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 – 11 a.m.
Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 – 1:30 p.m.
Game 5: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4 – 4 p.m.
Saturday, May 11
Game 6: Championship – 12 p.m.
Game 7 (if necessary): 2 p.m.
ABOUT THE BISON
- Bucknell got a shot of confidence on Tuesday as five players earned All-League honors. Cydnee Sanders was named First Team All-Patriot League, while Erin Cox, Kristen Zahn and Amanda Fazio were all Second Team honorees. Sanders, Zahn and Cassie Greenhawk were also voted to the Academic All-Patriot League.
- To qualify for the tournament, Bucknell swept Holy Cross nearly two weeks ago. It was the second Patriot League sweep of the season for the Bison, which also won four straight against Lafayette. Among the highlights from the series with the Crusaders was a 4-for-4 outing for Cox in game four. Alex MacLean also collected her first win of the season and struck out her 300th batter and Bridget Gates took over the Bucknell career record for saves (4) in that game.
- Cox' four-hit game was the first for the Bison this year. The sophomore also had five RBI, bringing her season total to a team-best 18. As a rookie, Cox totaled just two RBI all year.
- Bucknell earned a 1-0 shutout in game two of the series vs. Holy Cross. That was the Bison's ninth shutout of the year, which is tied for fifth all-time in program history and is just two shy of the record set at 11 by the 1991 squad.
- Bucknell logged at least one shutout against every Patriot League team except for Lehigh during the season. The Bison blanked Lafayette three times and earned a 4-0 win over Army in addition to its 1-0 decision against Holy Cross.
- Against Holy Cross, Sanders it 2-for-3 in game two, 2-for-4 in game three and 3-for-5 in the finale. The sophomore now has a team-best 12 multi-hit games this year. She has also reached base in each of her last six games, which is the longest active streak.
- Bucknell is 3-9 this year against the other teams in the Patriot League Tournament. Despite that record, however, the Bison have been outscored in just one series. In each four-game series, Bucknell led Colgate 16-15 and was even with Army 8-8. Lehigh outscored Bucknell in March, 15-6.
- Greenhawk leads all Bison in runs scored both overall and in Patriot League games. The senior has 17 runs scored in conference play. No other Bucknell player has more than six.
- Greenhawk is tied for first in the Patriot League in runs scored, but she is not the only Bison among the team's top 10. Cheyanna Young (8th, .333) and Zahn (10th, .328) are among the leaders in batting average, while Nielsen (5th, 1.89) and Fazio (7th, 2.02) rank in ERA. Zahn is also tied for first in triples (2), Sanders and Greenhawk (5) are tied for fourth in stolen bases, and Young is fifth in on-base percentage (.440). Fazio and Nielsen are also among the top five in wins, strikeouts and opponent batting average.
- Bucknell has seen many of its stats improve in Patriot League play. Overall, the team ERA stands at 2.98 but drops to 1.88 in conference games alone. Batting also jumps to .246 in conference play, while 10 of the team's 17 total home runs, and five of its nine triples, have come against the Patriot League.
- Fazio and Dana Nielsen are on the verge of becoming the first pair of Bison teammates to record 100 strikeouts in the same season. Fazio already has 106 punchouts, which is tied for third at Bucknell on the single-season list. Nielsen, who was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Week on April 29, enters the weekend at 99.
- Cindy Cherness has allowed three earned runs in her last 13 appearances combined. Two of those came in game four against Holy Cross on April 28.
- Colie Escobar shares the team lead in home runs this year with four. All four have come against teams playing in the Patriot League Tournament.
- Bucknell has won two Patriot League Championships in program history. The first came in 1997 and the most recent was in 2010, the last time the Bison were in the tournament.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS
- Lehigh enters the tournament at 35-14-1 overall and 17-3 in the Patriot League to earn the No. 1 seed. The Mountain Hawks swept the major awards on Tuesday as Morgan Decker was named the Patriot League Player and Rookie of the Year, Rebecca Bliss claimed Pitcher of the Year and Fran Troyan was Coach of the Year. Decker, Bliss, Cassie Waggy, Liz Lucas, Rosie Roessel and Emily Bausher were also First Team All-Patriot League honorees, while Alexis Watanabe was named to the Second Team.
- Decker finished her first regular season with a .417 batting average. She also had a team-best 44 RBI and 15 doubles. Bliss was 19-6 on the year in the pitchers' circle with a 1.66 ERA and three shutouts. Roessel (.367), Bausher (.308) and Watanabe (.361) were also batting over .300, while Bausher tallied 157 strikeouts and six shutouts and held opponents to a .197 average as a pitcher.
- Bucknell went 1-3 against Lehigh in the 2013 regular season. The lone win came 2-1 in six innings after the game was called for darkness. Zahn had what turned out to be the game-winning RBI in the bottom of the fourth inning in that game, while Nielsen got the win without allowing an earned run.
- The Bison had a shot at splitting the series but ended up dropping the finale with Lehigh 3-1. Bucknell held a slim 1-0 lead until late when Decker connected for a three-run homer in the top of the seventh.
- Army earned the No. 2 seed after posting records of 31-23 overall and 12-8 in the Patriot League. Alex Reynolds, Kasey McCravey and Amanda Nguyen were each named First Team All-Patriot League, while Christian McKone and Morgan Lashley were Second Team selections.
- Reynolds is batting .363 with 41 RBI on the year, while Nguyen is .378 at the plate with 36 stolen bases on 39 attempts. In the pitchers' circle, Lashley is 25-11 with a 2.30 ERA. She also has 177 strikeouts in 250.0 innings of work.
- Army took the first three games off Bucknell before the Bison won 4-0 in the finale in late April. The Black Knights won the opener 2-0 with both runs coming unearned. Games two and three were also one-run affairs, going 5-4 and 1-0 (11 inn.) to Army. The only run in the extra-inning game was also unearned.
- In Bucknell's 4-0 win over Army, Zahn hit 3-for-4 with two RBI and Escobar added a home run, while Greenhawk was 1-for-3 with two runs scored. Nielsen earned the win, giving up five hits over 6.1 innings in the shutout. Cherness recorded her first career save in the outing.
- Colgate dropped to the No. 4 seed after being swept by Lehigh in the final league series of the campaign. The Raiders finished the regular season at 16-30 overall and 9-11 in the Patriot League. Alana Dyson and Mariel Schlaefer were both voted First Team All-Patriot League. Dyson enters the weekend hitting .365 with 25 runs scored and is 11-for-16 in stolen bases. The freshman Schlaefer hit .315 with 23 runs.
- Bucknell opened the 2013 series with Colgate with a 7-0 win after scoring five runs in the top of the seventh. Escobar was 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI. Fazio pitched 6.0 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out five in the outing.
- Colgate took the remaining three games by narrow margins, winning 3-2 (8 inn.), 4-2 and 8-5. The regular-season series ended with a big Raider push as they scored seven runs in the fourth, including a grand slam from Schlaefer. Escobar was 2-for-3 with her second home run of the series in that game.
