Baseball Takes on Villanova in Tuesday Contest

Bucknell (14-24, 6-13 PL) at Villanova (19-17, 4-5 Big East)
When: Tuesday, April 22, 3:30 p.m.
Where: Villanova Ballpark ay Plymouth
Watch: FloBaseball
Live Stats

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell travels to Philadelphia on Tuesday to take on Villanova at 3:30 p.m. at Villanova Ballpark at Plymouth.
Bucknell is coming off a 1-2 weekend where the Bison dropped two of three games to Lehigh.
The Bison took Game 1 handily as a four-run first inning was all that was needed behind senior Tyler O'Neill's complete-game effort on the mound. A two-run home run by junior Michael Trommer and a two-run triple by sophomore Chris Morabito highlighted the big first inning, and senior Tyler Dunn polished it off with a solo home run later in the game.
Lehigh came out on top in a tight Game 2. The Bison stormed back from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game 4-4, but a go-ahead home run from Dom Patrizzi in the eighth inning gave Lehigh the 5-4 win. The Mountain Hawks offense clicked in Game 3, taking down BU 14-4 in seven innings.
Lafayette, Lehigh and Bucknell are all battling for the fourth-place spot in the Patriot League. Bucknell is currently in sixth with a 6-13 record — two games back of Lafayette and Lehigh both at 8-11. Holy Cross sits atop of the league with an 12-7 record with Navy and Army both at 0.5 games back at 13-9.
Tyler O'Neill went all seven innings on the mound in Game 1 on Saturday, allowing just an unearned run on three hits through the first six innings until a single and a home run made it a 7-3 game in the seventh. O'Neill retired the next three batters to end his day with the win and his second complete-game of the year.
Tyler O'Neill ranks second in the PL with a 2.98 ERA in 10 starts this season. O'Neill sits third on Bucknell's all-time strikeouts list with 214 strikeouts, 24 behind second-place Connor Van Hoose '18.
O'Neill leads the PL with 66.1 innings pitched Opponents are hitting .213 off the right-hander, good for second in the PL, and ranks third with 57 strikeouts and just 17 walks. O'Neill is climbing several other career program records for the Bison. O'Neill is third all-time in games started (39) and seventh in innings pitched (254.2).
Senior Tyler Dunn leads the Bison with a .333 batting average. Dunn extended his on-base streak to 31 games, reaching base in all three games — all 31 games he has played in this season. The first baseman was 3-for-8 with two RBIs and four walks in the three-game series at Lehigh. Dunn's Game 1 homer was the third of the season and the sixth of his career.
Dunn is third in the Patriot League with a 1.017 OPS and is slashing .333/.510/.507, all of which rank sixth or higher in the PL.
Dunn is climbing several career program records this season. The four-year starter ranks eighth in games played (171), ninth in games started (165), eighth in at-bats (602), 15th in hits (166), 13th in RBIs (109), 4th in walks (92), eighth in hit-by-pitches (24), 20th in doubles (30), and fourth in sacrifice flies (10). Dunn has drawn 33 walks this season, ranking sixth in program history for a single season.
Freshman John Calabrese sports a .355 average, and was the Patriot League Rookie of the Week and Bison of the Week honoree two weeks ago. Calabrese made his debut with a pinch-hit single against FAU and has become a mainstay in the BU lineup.
In 26 games with 21 starts, Calabrese is slashing .319/.377/.478. Calabrese is hitting .389 with runners on base and is 8-for-22 with runners in scoring position.
Junior third baseman Michael Trommer leads the Bison with 37 hits and has a .259 batting average. Trommer leads the Bison and ranks third in the PL with 32 RBIs, and ranks eighth with four home runs. Trommer currently has a 15-game on-base streak after reaching safely in all three games this past weekend.
Senior second baseman Billy Kender is second on the team with 35 hits. Kender has 11 extra-base hits and 19 RBIs. Kender currently has a 20-game on-base streak.
Junior Ryan Facinelli is fourth on the team with a .248 batting average. Facinelli go the Bison started in Game 3 with a two-run single in the first inning.
Sophomore Jonathan Adelmann has a 3.29 ERA in 17 appearances. He entered this past weekend with a team-low 1.73 ERA, but was tagged for five earned runs in Game 3 at Lehigh. He has racked up 36 strikeouts in 27.1 innings.
Senior Ben Magovern ranks ninth in the PL with a 5.44 ERA The left-hander was tagged for four earned runs on 10 hits in Game 2, but stranded eight runners on base with five strikeouts to keep the Bison in the game.
Freshman AJ Murray has been solid on the mound in recent outings. In Game 3, Murray stopped the bleeding in a four-run third inning with two strikeouts to strand two runners. He then tossed two more scoreless innings to slow down the Lehigh offense. In his last 12.2 innings, he's allowed five earned runs and has 11 strikeouts.
Through 38 games, the Bison have a .231 team batting average and a 7.59 team ERA. Opponents are batting .289 and have a 5.16 ERA against BU.
The Bison are 2-2 against ACC foes. Bucknell won a single game against Pitt, and took Game 2 from Virginia Tech in its opening series.
Against Pitt, seven Bison pitchers combined for a four-hit, 17-strikeout effort. The 17 strikeouts were four shy of the team record of 21, set in 1956 against Franklin & Marshall (all by Don Richards) and in 1989 against Wilkes.
Head coach Scott Heather is in his 13th season at the helm, passing Bill Lane (1946-57) as the third-longest tenured coach in program history. Heather's 237 career wins are second-most in team history, trailing only Hall-of-Famer Gene Depew (591).

Villanova at a Glance/Series History

Villanova enters the contest with a 19-17 overall record and a 4-5 record in the Big East having only played three conference series thus far. The Wildcats took two of three games from both Georgetown and Butler, but were most recently swept by Xavier in a three-game series.
The Wildcats defeated a good South Florida team in a three-game series earlier this year. Villanova fell in the first game before taking the next two games 12-9 and 8-5. In its second game of the season, Villanova was tied 1-1 with No. 2 Virginia in the sixth inning before Virginia pulled away to win 3-1.
Villanova is averaging 6.3 runs per game and is hitting .271 as a team. Austin Lemon leads the team with a .343 batting average and a .451 on-base percentage. He has 37 hits in 30 games and has driven in 20 runs for the Wildcats.
Brayden Leonard is batting .338/.478/.401 and leads the team with 46 hits and has driven in 28 runs. Michael Whooley is hitting .326/.558/.428. Whooley ranks second in the Big East with 37 runs scored.
John Freitag is batting .318/.447/.443. Jason Neff is hitting .287 with a .628 slugging percentage. Neff has hit 12 home runs this year for a staggering 46 RBIs. JoJo Montgomery is batting .281 and leads the team with 10 stolen bases.
Villanova has a 6.17 team ERA and opponents are hitting .294. Luke McCollough leads the team with 51.0 innings in nine starts on the mound this season. He is 4-2 with a 4.76 ERA and 37 strikeouts.
Jake Francis and Bobby Finn have made eight starts each. Francis is 5-1 on the mound with a team-low 3.88 ERA. He has made 14 total appearances and earned two saves. In 46.1 innings, he has struck out 28 batters and walked only eight. Finn has a 4.81 ERA in 24.1 innings.
Alec Sachais has a 4.17 ERA and has earned five saves out of the bullpen. In 36.2 innings over 14 appearances, he has struck out 41 batters.
Villanova leads the all-time series 23-10, dating all the way back to 1899. Villanova defeated Bucknell in the first six meetings before Bucknell picked up its first win in 1909.
Most recently in 2024, the Bison took down the Wildcats 18-10 at Depew Field. Michael Trommer and Billy Kender each had two hits in that game. Kender scored five runs for the Bison and Trommer drove in three runs.

Looking Ahead

Bucknell has six Patriot League games left to play this season. The Bison host Army this upcoming weekend for a three-game series at Depew Field before traveling to Lafayette the following weekend. As it stands, Lafayette and Lehigh sit two games ahead of the Bison in the PL standings.

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Players Mentioned

Jonathan Adelmann

John Calabrese

Tyler Dunn

Ryan Facinelli

Billy Kender

Ben Magovern

Chris Morabito

AJ Murray

Tyler O'Neill

Michael Trommer