April 9, 2008

LEWISBURG, Pa. - In the midst of one of its most successful stretches in recent memory, the Bucknell softball team will play five games in an upcoming four-day span starting with a single contest at home against regional foe Susquehanna on Thursday. The Bison, who are 5-1 in their last six games and 10-6 in their last 16, will also travel to Bethlehem, Pa., this weekend for a four-game series with perennial Patriot League power Lehigh.

Bucknell Softball Notebook (13-21, 5-3 PL)
Bucknell Notes
• Bucknell won three of four games against Colgate last weekend, marking its first time accomplishing that feat against the Raiders since 1999. The Bison swept Saturday's doubleheader, their first doubleheader sweep of Colgate since 1999. Bucknell had been 5-26 against Colgate since 2000.

• Bucknell has won five of its last six games. The Bison last picked up five victories in a six-game span last year against Penn State, Holy Cross and Delaware. With its doubleheader sweep of Colgate on Saturday, Bucknell extended its winning streak to four games, its longest since winning eight in a row in 2005. The Bison then lost the first game of Sunday's twinbill.

• Bucknell currently has a 5-3 home record. The victory total is two more than it had all of last year.

• Bucknell owns a 13-21 record this year and is two wins shy of equaling its victory total from all of 2007. The Bison, who still have 15 games left on their regular-season schedule, have not won more than 16 games since 1999.

• In addition to being two wins shy of its 2007 overall total, Bucknell is also two Patriot League victories short of last year's figure with 12 more league contests to play. The Bison have not posted more than eight victories in Patriot League play since 1999.

• With is 5-3 record through two weekends of Patriot League play, Bucknell stands second in the league standings, just one game behind Lehigh. The Bison are in good position to qualify for their first Patriot League Tournament since 2005. Since 2001, when the Patriot League expanded to a 20-game schedule, just two teams that have won at least eight conference games have failed to advance to the postseason.

• Bucknell has posted a solid 10-6 record over its last 16 games. Over that span, the Bison have hit .337 and outscored their opponents 112-68. Erin Curatola leads the team with 19 runs batted in over that span, while Mary Pavlovich and Elyse Colmenero have hit a team-best .444 during that time period. Senior pitcher Christie Wiest has piled up a 6-2 record while starting half of those 16 contests.

• Wiest is moving up a number of charts in the Bucknell record book. She already holds the Bison career records for games pitched (106) and games started (83) and now ranks in the top five in wins (28, 5th), shutouts (7, 4th), innings pitched (502.2, 3rd) and strikeouts (321, t-2nd).

• Bucknell earned a pair of weekly honors from the Patriot League this week. Mary Pavlovich earned Patriot League Player of the Week plaudits, while Lauren Fry was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Week for the third time in four weeks. She is now one shy of equaling the record for most Rookie of the Week honors in one season.

• Curatola leads the Bison with a career-high 25 runs batted in this season. That figure is one shy of 10th place on the Bucknell single-season list, and is 10 short of equaling the program record held by Angie Stackhouse and Lauren Litts.

• Bucknell has scored 152 runs this season, a figure that is 23 shy of last year's 175. The Bison are on pace to break the program record for runs scored, which is 217 and has stood since 1991.

• Five of Bucknell's top seven hitters are freshmen or sophomores, including the top three. Fry, a freshman, paces the team with a stellar .341 average that ranks eighth in the Patriot League. Pavlovich, a sophomore, is second with a .308 average, while freshman Sam Rollandi is third with a .302 average.

• Bucknell's four-game weekend series at Lehigh will mark the completion of the Bison road schedule for 2008. The Bison will play their final 10 games at home.

Bucknell vs. Susquehanna & Lehigh
• Bucknell is 9-2 all-time against Susquehanna, a Division II squad. The two teams have not met since 1985 despite being located minutes apart on Route 15.

• Susquehanna is 9-11 this season. The Crusaders have a team batting average of .290, but own a team ERA of 5.65. They have three batters hitting better than .400 and five with batting averages over .300.

• Bucknell is 30-57 all-time against Lehigh, the winner of nine consecutive Patriot League regular-season titles. The Bison have lost 29 of their last 30 meetings with the Mountain Hawks with the only win over that span coming in the 2005 Patriot League Tournament.

• Lehigh is 25-9-1 this year and sports a 6-2 Patriot League record. The Mountain Hawks split a four-game series at Lafayette last weekend and have won one of their last five games entering their weekend series with Bucknell.

• Lisa Sweeney, the 2007 Patriot League Pitcher of the Year, paces Lehigh both in the circle and at the plate. She is hitting .400 with five home runs and 22 runs batted in. In the pitching circle she has a 14-2 record and a 1.38 ERA with 189 strikeouts.

2008 Bucknell Weekly Honors
• Patriot League Player of the Week:
- Alison Ford (3/24), Mary Pavlovich (4/7)
• Patriot League Rookie of the Week:
- Lauren Fry (3/17, 3/31, 4/7)
• ECAC Player of the Week:
- Alison Ford (3/26)

Up Next
• Bucknell will face its final non-league foe of the 2008 season on Wednesday, April 16, when it hosts Towson in a doubleheader. The Bison were swept in a doubleheader at Towson last year and have lost four straight to the Tigers.

Bucknell's Schedule this Week
Thursday, April 10
Susquehanna at Bucknell, 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 12
Bucknell at Lehigh (DH), 1 p.m.

Sunday, April 13
Bucknell at Lehigh (DH), 12 p.m.