Softball Returns to Patriot League Play with Road Series at Colgate

LEWISBURG, Pa. – With the 2014 Patriot League Tournament just two weeks away, the Bucknell softball team will look to solidify its post-season standing this weekend when it travels to Colgate for a three-game series on Eaton Street Field. The Bison and the Raiders are set to play a doubleheader on Saturday at 12 p.m., and Sunday's single game is slated to begin at the same time. Live stats and video streaming over the Patriot League Network will be available for both contests.

Bucknell, which is 18-21 overall and 7-5 in the Patriot League, played a string of six non-conference games over the course of its bye week from league action, most recently earning a 9-6 victory over St. Francis (Pa.) on Tuesday afternoon. Freshman Carolyn Wan was superb at the plate against the Red Flash, hitting 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI, while sophomore Cindy Cherness earned the win for the Bison, pitching 2.2 innings of relief during which she allowed one earned run and two hits while walking one and striking out three. Prior to Tuesday's game, Bucknell took two wins in a three-game home series with Coppin State and battled through a tough doubleheader with Penn State last Wednesday. The Bison offense was strong in all five of those games, and freshman Jacee Almond earned her second Rookie of the Week award of the season for her hitting efforts.

Bucknell, which ranks ninth in the nation with 1.64 doubles per contest, has four batters hitting over .300, led by junior Cydnee Sanders, who has recorded a conference-best 60 hits in 130 at-bats for a .462 batting average. Sanders, who has led the league in hitting since the first week of the season, is currently the ninth-best hitter in the nation, and is joined by classmate Kristen Zahn (.372) and Almond (.352) on the list of top-ten batters in the conference. Zahn is the team's best power hitter with a .628 slugging percentage, the second-best mark in the Patriot League, and has hit a team-best six home runs this season, while senior Mallory Lyons leads the conference and ranks seventh in the nation with 0.34 sacrifice hits per contest.

Cherness, who earned the win over St. Francis on Tuesday, currently leads Bucknell's young pitching staff with a league-best 2.02 ERA, but all of her appearances this season have come in relief. Freshman Lara Bean (7-4, 2.70 ERA), who leads the league in opposing batting average, and sophomore Dana Nielsen (6-11, 4.20 ERA), who has pitched a conference-best 98 strikeouts, split the starting role in the early part of the season, but sophomore Amanda Fazio, a 2013 All-League pitcher, has returned from injury in recent weeks, earning a complete-game win over Coppin State last Saturday.

Colgate, which currently sits in seventh place in the Patriot League, enters the weekend with a 10-27 overall record and 2-10 mark in Patriot League action, having earned two wins in its three-game series with Lafayette. The team most recently split a doubleheader with Binghamton on Wednesday and dropped a pair of games to Albany on Thursday. The Raiders hold a 51-45 lead in the all-time series with the Bison, and earned victories in three of their five meetings last season, but Bucknell came out on top in the most recent contest between the two squads, earning a 5-3 win in last year's Patriot League Tournament.

The Raiders' offense is spearheaded by Katie Bushee, who is hitting .333 and leads the squad with 41 hits and 25 runs, but Marisa Dowling (.275) and Tera Vaughn (.263) can also provide a significant threat at the plate. Offensively, Megan Carnase and Brigit Ieuter have split the starting role in the pitching circle, compiling ERAs of 3.50 and 3.95, respectively. Carnase is currently 3-10 on the season and has pitched 88.0 innings, while Vaughn has seen action in 101.0 innings and has a 5-13 record.

Bucknell will play its final regular-season series of the 2014 campaign next weekend, traveling to Boston, Massachusetts to take on Boston University for the first time in program history. The Bison and the Terriers will play a doubleheader on Saturday and single game on Sunday, with action on both days scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.