April 17, 2008

Looking to stay in the Atlantic 10 Tournament picture, the Dayton Flyers head to the northeast to play the Rhode Island Rams and the Massachusetts Minutewomen. Dayton, touting one of the best offenses and defenses in the Atlantic 10 will take on Rhode Island and UMass in action this weekend.

SCOUTING THE RAMS
The Rams are led by Leah DiBussolo, a .343 hitter with two home runs and 25 RBI's. Senior Jill Anderson leads the Rams with eight wins this season in the circle, she has struck out 61 and allowed 116 runs this season. The Rams have lost four of their last five, including losses to A-10 foes Temple, Saint Joseph's and UMass.

SCOUTING THE MINUTEWOMEN
Dayton looks to dethrone the UMass Minutewomen who are currently unbeaten in the A-10. UMass is led by sophomore Jessica Serio. Through 38 games, Serio has 35 hits and 13 RBI's. Brandice Balschmiter tops the pitching rotation for the Minutewomen. Balschmiter leads the Atlantic 10 with 203 strikeouts, and holds an 18-6 record with a 0.64 ERA.

FLYERS ADD TWO MORE TO 2008-09 RECRUITING CLASS
Head coach Cara Clark and the University of Dayton softball team added two more future Flyers to the 2008-2009 recruiting class on April 10 inking Courtney Kutsulis and Lauren Nacke to National Letters of Intent. With the latest additions Dayton has now added five total players to the 2008-2009 recruiting class. Clark and her staff inked Brandy Brown, Raime Cronkhite and Kristina Ortiz all to letters of intent during the early signing period last fall. The five signings mark the beginning of head coach Cara Clark's first full recruiting class at Dayton.

MEYER ONE OF A-10'S BEST
Atlantic 10 statistics show that Molly Meyer is one of the league's top hitters. As of April 17, Meyer leads the A-10 in hits (52) after collecting five versus George Washington. In addition, she leads the conference in total bases with 64 and is tied for third in runs scored with 32.

MY OH MEYER
As a leadoff hitter, Meyer has 52 hits in 133 at-bats for a season batting average of .377. Meyer has an on base percentage of .445 and is hitting .385 in her last four games. She went 3-of-4 in her second game against North Dakota and 2-of-3 against South Dakota State University. Meyer also went 2-of-3 in back-to-back games at the Panther Invitational. At George Washington she hit 4-for-5 in the second game driving in one run and scoring one. During her UD career, she has hit a whopping .359 at the plate tying her for second in UD history.

MACI'S DAY PARADE
Sophomore slugger Anne Maci has been making a name for herself at the plate. On April 12, she swatted a home run at George Washington. On February 9 against North Dakota, Maci was 2-of-3, collected one double and drove in two runs. On the very next day, she went 2-of-3 again this time driving one runner in against the Fighting Sioux. In UD's win over Tennessee State, Maci was 3-of-4 and collected four RBI's. Against IUPUI she hit two home runs and a walk off double to win the game in extra innings. She has amassed 28r RBI's this season, shattering her career-best mark of five. In addition to breaking her best career mark, Maci is currently fifth in the A-10 for runs batted in.

GOING YARD
With her home run against La Salle on April 6, Blair Crabtree has climbed all the way up to third all-time in UD history with 11 homers. In addition, Crabtree ranks second in the Atlantic 10 with 31 RBI's.

SIXTEEN CANDLES
At the UNI Classic, Blair Crabtree went 2-for-3 in back-to-back games on her birthday, February 9. She also collected one double, one RBI and crossed the plate twice. The icing on the cake was a .667 batting average on the day. Laura Matthews went 3-of-5 on her birthday March 2, smacking two doubles and tagging out the game-tying out to end the game against Appalachian State.

THE HITS KEEP COMING
Junior Mollie Schrank keeps piling up the hits for the Flyers. Schrank has 52 hits in 2008 moving her career total to 133 hits in 129 games. Schrank also leads the team with 10 stolen bases and is third in the nation with 18 sacrifice hits this season.

"MOLL"ING IT OVER
In addition to her 133 career hits, Schrank has also placed herself fourth among all Flyers past and present in batting average. She is currently batting .348 in her UD career.

THE ZIONSVILLE CANNON Senior pitcher Erin Lafayette has thrown 157 career strikeouts. That total places her in sixth in Flyer history. Melissa Myher holds the all-time record for strikeouts in a career with 498. She has also pitched 336.1 innings, which places her fifth on UD's all-time list. LaFayette has struck out 64 so far this season.

SEVEN KINDS OF SMOKE
While her 157 strikeouts are nothing to scoff at, Erin Lafayette is also one of the most efficient pitchers in Flyer history. LaFayette has a current ratio of 3.27 strikeouts per seven innings.

THAT'S A RAPPE!
Sophomore Eva Rappe knows a thing or two about sitting batters down. Last season Rappe collected 21 strikeouts in 63.2 innings pitched. In 112.2 innings pitched this season, she has already sent 52 batters back to the dugout with their heads hung, including four strikeouts against North Dakota on February 10, six strikeouts against IPFW and four more in games against Temple and Saint Joseph's.

SAVE-A-LOT
Eva Rappe can bring the heat, but lately she's been known best for icing batters at the end of a game. At the EKU Invitational Rappe stepped in and shut down the Eastern Kentucky offense collecting her first collegiate save. In the next game, she repeated her effort, this time keeping Cleveland State at-bay for her second straight save giving her the new record for saves in a single-season. She added to that total on March 19 when she collected the save against Colgate, breaking the school record for career saves.

MUSIC CITY MASHER
Laura Matthews has quietly shot up the charts as one of the team's top hitters. Last season she had 13 hits in 32 games, but through 41 games this year Matthews has already cranked out 36 hits. Matthews is presently batting a blazing .349 at the plate. She also hit her fourth career home run against Ohio. It was the first time Matthews hit a home run since April 23, 2006.

MATTHEWS NAMED A-10 PLAYER OF THE WEEK ON MARCH 3
Laura Matthews has really come alive in her senior year. At the EKU Invitational, Matthews racked up a .625 average going 5-of-8 and smacking two doubles and driving in three. For her efforts the Atlantic 10 awarded her Player of the Week honors on March 3. This was the first time a Flyer softball player has received this honor in over three years.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Senior catcher Laura Matthews has also been a force behind the plate for the Flyers. Matthews has already thrown 13 runners out that have dared to steal a base on her watch. She has more than doubled her career mark this season which was previously set at nine thrown out.

KICKIN' WITH KJ
Coming into the season, junior Katie Jordan had only stepped up to the plate 15 times in her entire career with a batting average of .067. Jordan has already been at-bat 85 times, collecting three doubles, 13 runs and six RBI's.

FEATS OF STRENGTH
Freshman Emily Stegeman is making an impact in her first season. Stegeman has 14 runs on 29 hits. She is hitting .296 and has started all 41 games. However, more impressive are her 14 RBI's and her ranking fourth on the team in batting average. Stegeman has made numerous acrobatic plays including a diving catch to end the inning against Eastern Kentucky and another leaping out to rob the Colonels of a sure base-hit.

COMING THROUGH IN THE CLUTCH
Sophomore Megan Lee has been a force in multiple games for the Flyers. With two outs and one runnner on base, Lee smacked her first collegiate home run win the game for Dayton 2-1 over Saint Joseph's. Against North Dakota, Lee stepped in and hit a double bringing in two RBI's. Versus Tennessee State, Lee went 2-of-3 at the plate. Lee is batting .224 through 39 games with seven sacrifices. Lee has also not made an error in right field, her first season playing the position.

BULS ON PARADE
Freshman Leah Buls collected her first win in an 8-3 downing of Cleveland State on March 2. She has pitched 15.0 innings and struck out five this season.

DESIGNATED PUNISHER
As a designated player Allie Falk has collected 20 hits and three doubles. Falk most notably hit a grand slam home run against Fordham on April 5. Not only was it the first grand slam of her collegiate careeer, but it was also the first home run at UD.

TOP THREE THE PLACE TO BE
Through 41 games there is one thing that the Flyers do know, they can hit the ball. In fact, among Atlantic 10 foes, they rank third in batting with a .283 average. In addition, UD has collected 46 doubles which ranks them fourth in the A-10. Dayton is averaging 1.21 doubles per game. Last year Dayton hit .233 with only 30 doubles.

THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM
The beginning of the Flyers season on February 9 came 31 days earlier than last season. In that time, the Flyers played in 13 games. When everything was said and done the Flyers played in 21 contests before Atlantic 10 competition. Only two other A-10 teams started their season as early as UD this year.

DAYTON "D" HAVING A FIELD DAY
Some say the best defense is a good offense, but what's so bad about a good defense as well? UD leads the Atlantic 10 with a .974 fielding percentage. The Flyers are second in the A-10 for allowing the fewest errors. In addition, the Flyers have caught 15 stealing already this season.

GOCKEN AMONG 2007 JUNIOR COLLEGE CATCHERS OF THE YEAR
Lyndsi Gocken was among 10 catchers named the 2007 Diamond Sports Catcher of the Year. The award, presented by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and Diamond Sports, is given to the top catcher from NFCA member schools. Gocken was the recipient of the award for the National Junior College Athletics Association Division III level.

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES
UD began the season on a 25-game road swing taking them through two time zones and nine different states. In addition, the Flyers played in four different tournaments before playing at Charlotte in March. Over the course of the season they are expected to log more than 10,000 miles on the road round-trip.

DAYTON PREDICTED TO FINISH TENTH IN ATLANTIC 10
Atlantic 10 Coaches have predicted that the University of Dayton Flyers softball team will finish tenth in Atlantic 10 play this season. This season 10 letter-winners return to the young Flyer squad.Rounding out the top six spots in the coaches poll are UMass, Fordham, Saint Louis, Charlotte, Temple and Saint Joseph's.

DYNAMIC DUO IN DISTANT LANDS
Last summer, sophomore Megan Lee and freshman Emily Stegeman traveled to China as part of a softball exhibition. The two of them traveled as part of the Miami Valley Xpress club team to promote softball for the 2008 Olympic Games that are held in Beijing this summer.