Bucknell University Athletics
Baseball Welcomes Lafayette for Three-Game Series at Depew Field
4/6/2018 11:14:00 AM | Baseball
Setting the Scene
Who: Lafayette (12-16, 2-4 PL) at Bucknell (7-20, 4-7 PL)
When: Saturday, Apr. 7, 12 p.m. (DH) | Sunday, Apr. 8, 1 p.m.
Where: Depew Field, Lewisburg, Pa.
Watch Live: Patriot League Network (Sunday only)
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
About the Bison
• After a key series win at Army West Point last weekend, Bucknell is back home for an important three-game set with Lafayette. The Bison and Leopards will play a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game Sunday at Depew Field. Sunday's contest will air live on the Patriot League Network at Patriot League.tv.
• At 4-7 in Patriot League play, Bucknell currently occupies the fourth and final PL Tournament position. The Bison are three games in back of Army (5-2), Holy Cross (5-2) and Navy (7-4), and 2.5 games in front of fifth-place Lafayette.
• Bucknell's top three starters -- Connor Van Hoose, Jeff Gottesman and Jack Grabek -- have all been terrific in conference play. Van Hoose has been nearly unhittable, posting a 2-1 record with a 0.95 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 19 innings. In his three Patriot League starts, he outdueled Navy ace Noah Song in a 10-2 win; he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before losing a hard-luck 1-0 game to Army; and then he struck out a career-high 14 in a 4-1 win over the Black Knights last Saturday at West Point. Van Hoose has yielded only two earned runs (four total) and 10 hits in league play while holding opponents to a .159 batting average. Van Hoose ranks second in the Patriot League with 57 strikeouts on the season, and his 187 career Ks are third-most in school history. He needs eight more to catch Jack Recco for No. 2 all-time.
• Gottesman has a 3.26 ERA in three Patriot League outings. The best of those came last Saturday in a 5-1 win at Army, when he allowed just an unearned run and five hits over seven strong innings. Gottesman's 2.85 ERA for the full season is the best among the Bucknell starters and fifth-best among PL starters.
• Grabek is 1-2 with a 4.82 ERA in league play. His best performance came in a 5-0 win over Holy Cross on March 25, when he came within one out of a complete-game shutout.
• The Bucknell pitching staff has now gone 16 straight games without allowing a home run. The streak covers 133.1 innings and dates back to March 11, when Villanova's Ryan Toohers hit a solo home run off Gottesman for the Wildcats' only run in Bucknell's 11-1 win. There has yet to be a home run hit by any team in 10 games at Depew Field this season.
• Bucknell did get in one mid-week game this past week, falling to Binghamton 9-6 on Wednesday. Dominic Toso drove in two runs with a pinch-hit double, and Keifer Rawlings, Luke Johnson and Alex Baumann also had RBIs. The Bison used 18 position players and seven pitchers in the game.
• The back end of Bucknell's bullpen appears to be rounding into shape, with Nate Grisius, Hunter Robichaux and Brenden Tuttle all pitching well of late. Grisius leads the team in both appearances (11) and ERA (1.98), and he now has 13 strikeouts in 13.2 innings after striking out the side against Binghamton on Wednesday. Grisius has only been scored upon in two of his 11 outings. After a couple of tough innings against Arkansas and North Carolina A&T, Robichaux now has three straight scoreless appearances spanning 4.2 innings. He picked up the final six outs, three by strikeout, and earned his first save of the season in relief of Gottesman last week at Army. Tuttle leads the team with two saves and is also working on a streak of three straight scoreless showings.
• Evan Madigan and Johnson continue to jockey for the team lead in batting average. Madigan is back on top at .342, followed closely by Johnson at .333. They rank fifth and eighth, respectively, in the Patriot League batting race. Johnson's ninth-inning double against Binghamton extended his streak to 19 straight games reaching base.
• Tyler Wincig, who his hitting .310 on the season, continues to lead the Patriot League in on-base percentage at .479. Luke Hartman is fifth in the league in OBP at .431, and Johnson is 10th at .415. Wincig and Hartman have both drawn 20 walks, tied for fourth-most in the PL.
• Miles Moore hit his third home run of the season to break a 1-1 deadlock in Bucknell's 4-1 win at Army last week. Moore leads the team with nine two-out RBIs on the season. He has 12 hits this year, with eight going for extra bases (4 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homers), giving him a team-best .458 slugging percentage.
• Bucknell ranks 11th in the nation in sacrifice flies with 17.
Scouting Lafayette/Series Record
• After finishing 8-44 last year, Lafayette has been much-improved in 2018. The Leopards are 12-16 this season and 2-4 in the Patriot League. They started PL play by taking 2 of 3 from arch-rival Lehigh, but then Lafayette got roughed up a bit last week in Annapolis, losing to Navy by 6-0, 20-9 and 10-9. The Leopards bounced back with a 9-1 mid-week win over Saint Joseph's on Wednesday, getting six solid innings from starter Mark Anderson and three hits from Trey Durrah.
• Lafayette hits .251 as a team and has three players ranked in the top 10 in the league in batting average. John Marti (4th, .347), Durrah (9th, .328) and Luke Robinson (10th, .326) are the top three hitters. The Leopards also have 36 stolen bases in 50 attempts.
• Bucknell will likely see two left-handed starting pitchers in Brett Kreyer (1-4, 5.88 ERA) and John Cain (0-3, 5.09) along with RHP Kenny Campbell (1-3, 6.85). Bucknell has even splits against lefties and righties this season, hitting .252 against both.
• Lafayette leads the all-time series 114-72 dating back to 1895. The Bison swept all four games from the Leopards last season, winning 4-1, 6-5, 11-10 and 8-5. Bucknell hit .347 in the four-game series, with Luke Johnson going 8-for-13. Then-senior Brett Smith also went 8-for-13, including a walk-off double in game three of the series. Lafayette also had the bats going that weekend. The Leopards hit .312 with five home runs in the series. Steven Cohen, who is hitting .283 this season, was 10-for-14 against Bucknell pitching last year.
Looking Ahead
• Next week, Bucknell hosts Towson on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., then heads to Worcester, Mass., for a three-game series with Holy Cross.
