Category: Softball

By Thomas Walter
Writer

The softball team suffered six losses this week at the hands of Army and Saint Francis (Pa.). Playing at home over the weekend, the Orange and Blue lost all four of their games to the Black Knights with the closest contest being a 6-3 loss on April 14. Following the Patriot League series, the Bison were swept once again by Saint Francis, managing to score just one run in the two games.

The Orange and Blue have been swept in six of their last seven series and have lost 23 out of their last 24 games. Deep into the season, the Bison have nearly played themselves out of title contention and need to find a way to get their bats to come alive if they hope to have any chance to make the league tournament.

Against Army, again the Bison had their chances to score but could not convert.  On the second day of the two-day series, the Orange and the Blue left a total of 12 runners on base. 

On April 17, Saint Francis outscored the Orange and the Blue 15–1 over two games. This continues the streak of the Bison getting violently outscored by all the opponents they have faced in the last two months.

Currently, the squad sits at 6-31 with a 0-12 record in the Patriot League.

“We are going to continue giving our all every pitch,” catcher/outfielder Meredith Dickson ’12 said. “We are looking forward  to coming together as a team. Our love for the game will show through.”

The Bison will host Holy Cross this coming weekend before traveling to Lafayette for their final series of the regular season.

By Thomas Walter
Writer

The softball team dropped four straight to Patriot League rival Lehigh last weekend in Bethlehem, Pa. Despite heading into the weekend with newfound confidence following a win agains La Salle last week, the Orange and Blue could not manufacture any offensive production, falling in all four games by scores of 9-0, 8-0, 8-0, and 9-0.

After being outscored 34-0 the Bison are well aware that their bats need to come alive if they hope to take down Army this coming weekend.

“We need all of the parts of our game to come together,” Meredith Dickson ’12 said. “We need to wake up our bats and have consistent pitching outings. We need to rely on the confidence we have in ourselves.”

Certainly, the team’s future success will lie on whether or not it can begin to put runners on base and produce the timely hits necessary to put key runs on the board. During this past weekend’s series, the Bison failed to record more than four hits in any single game, putting all the pressure on the pitching staff to be perfect, but the Bison pitchers were not up to the task. 

“We really struggled with our hitting and pitching this weekend, so going into this weekend we really need to focus maximizing hits on offense and minimizing them when pitching,” Courtney Conover ’14 said.

In order to put an end to this losing streak, the Orange and Blue will need to pull it all together against a very strong Army team that is 22-15 overall and 5-3 in conference. Despite their winless Patriot League record, the Bison remain confident and know that they are a strong team.

“In order to stay confident during this losing streak we have to remind ourselves that we can compete with any team in the patriot league,” Conover said.

By Thomas Walter

Writer

The softball team opened Patriot League play this past weekend by losing four straight at home to Colgate, but rebounded with a split in a doubleheader against La Salle on Wednesday.

The Orange and Blue hit the ball well but left runners stranded in scoring position all weekend long. In the four games against the Raiders, the Bison recorded just four total runs off 15 hits.

“The most important thing for us to turn around is to get our bats moving so we can produce more offensively,” Cassie Greenhawk ’13 said.

On Saturday, the Orange and Blue kept it close in both of the day’s games, falling 4-3 and 2-0. Mary Horton ’13 went one-for-one with an RBI and three walks in game one, while Tori Robinson ’15 recorded the team’s only hit in game two.

Sunday’s games were much more lopsided as the Raiders were able to outscore the Bison 11-1 and 5-0.

“Even though the results weren’t that great, the team definitely took some positives out of this past weekend, the first being that even though there were a lot of runs scored against the team there was solid pitching effort all weekend long,” Courtney Conover ’14 said.

Going forward, the team knows that it must continue this trend of solid pitching if it wishes to succeed late in the season.

“I’d have to say that our pitching staff did a phenomenal job pitching during the Saturday double-header,” Greenhawk said. “They really held their own against Colgate as far as minimizing their opportunities to get runners in scoring position.”

After a disappointing weekend against Colgate, the team took to the field Wednesday against La Salle to get another warm up in before facing off against Lehigh. After dropping the first game 1-0, the Bison responded strongly with a 5-2 victory. Laura Sandford ’13 drove in the winning run in the second game in order for the team to get another win under its belt and get some confidence going into this weekend.

“The La Salle games definitely give us extra confidence going into Lehigh,” Conover said. “I think we let the first game get away from us, but we answered back in the second game and came back to win the game.”

The team travels to Lehigh this weekend to play its second Patriot League series of the season. The series is set to start on 1 p.m. this Saturday.

“The biggest thing we need to get done against Lehigh is hit when we have runners on, especially when they are in scoring position,” Conover said. “We have definitely been leaving too many runners on base and that’s definitely something we want to improve on this weekend.”

By Thomas Walter

Writer

The women’s softball team extended its losing streak to six game this week, dropping four games to Cornell, Delaware State, and Drexel and lowering its record to 5-14 on the season. After losing a pair of contests at the Delaware State Tournament this weekend, the Orange and Blue lost both games of its doubleheader against Drexel 7-2 on Wednesday.  

In Delaware, the Bison’s two opponents combined for 17 runs over the four games, including nine extra-base hits and three home runs. Against Cornell, the Bison held the lead for most of the game, but two late home runs gave the Big Red a slim 9-8 victory. Leading by four in the bottom of the seventh, the Orange and Blue quickly surrendered a two-run home run to Erin Belles, cutting the lead in half. Then, minutes later, Erica Gaeta smashed a three-run homer with two outs, clinching the win for Cornell.

“We have played Cornell a lot in the past and they have always been a very competitive and well coached team and the fact that we did very well against then definitely helped our confidence going into this weekend,” Courtney Conover ’14 said.

Despite the loss, the Orange and Blue did see Bridget Gates ’13 go two-for-three with three RBIs, while Kristen Zahn ’15 and Meredith Dickson ’12 also recorded multi-hit games.

Later in the day, the Bison suffered their second loss to Delaware State 8-3. Unlike the Cornell game, the Orange and Blue trailed the entire game and could never seem to string together enough hits to put runs on the board. Overall, the Bison stranded 10 runners on base.

Against Drexel, the Bison continued to struggle offensively, producing just four runs off of six hits. Highlighting the day for the Bison was Nikki Silva ’15 who recorded her first career home run, breaking up a no-hit bid in the fifth inning. Mallory Lyons ’14 and Colie Escobar ’15 were the only other Bison players to record RBIs on the day.

“The most important thing in offense that we took away from this last weekend was to be patient and hit our pitches. The most important thing in defense is communication and to make every play count,” Mary Horton ’13 said.

Despite the slow start to their season, the Orange and Blue have a chance to turn things around as they head into Patriot League play this weekend. The Bison will host Colgate for a four-game series starting on Saturday at 1 p.m.

“The most important thing the team took away from this weekend to next weekend is to not let our guard down, especially in the late innings, and to take command of the games we know we can win and just have a lot of presence, control, and swag on the field,” Gates said.