Softball at Plattsburgh, NY Regional

Friday vs. Montclair State U.

5:30 p.m.

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Monday, May 5, 2008

FOR THREE SPRING TEAMS: IT'S TOURNAMENT TIME

W-Lacrosse and softball in NCAA tournament; baseball to defend LEC crown

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The women’s lacrosse and fastpitch softball teams and the baseball team are involved in post-season tournament play this week.

In NCAA Division III tournament play, the women’s lacrosse team visits Colby College in a first-round match Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. while the fastpitch softball team faces No. 22 nationally-ranked SUNY Cortland Thursday at 10 a.m. in an opening-round game of a seven-team, double-elimination regional tournament hosted by SUNY Plattsburgh at Cardinal Park. Eastern was unranked in the most regional NCAA poll (prior to conference tournament play) while Cortland was the No. 4 team in the Northeast.

At right: Taylor MacDonald

The second-seeded baseball team begins its quest for a third straight Little East Conference tournament title, fifth in six years and seventh overall when it faces No. 5 seed University of Massachusetts Boston in the first game of the six-team, double-elimination tournament Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Owl Athletic Complex on the Keene State College campus.

Women’s Lacrosse in third NCAA tourney

The women’s lacrosse team (11-6) competes in its third NCAA Division III tournament when the unranked Warriors meet the No. 13 nationally-ranked White Mules (12-5)  in a first-round match in the 25-team field. For the third straight year, Eastern gained the automatic bid extended the playoff champion of the Little East Conference. Colby received an automatic bid for winning the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) playoffs when the defeated No. 11 nationally-ranked Trinity College in the semifinals and No. 7 nationally-ranked Middlebury College in the final. It was the first NESCAC title for Colby, making its second NCAA tournament appearance (in four years).  The White Mules were one of four teams from the NESCAC named to the tournament.

The Warriors are 1-2 in two previous NCAA tournaments. They lost an opening-round match to Montclair State in last year’s NCAA tournament after winning a first-round match against Springfield College in 2005 prior to being eliminated by Salisbury University in the second round that season.

Eastern has met Colby once, the Mules winning by a 16-9 score last March in Orlando, FL

Senior attack Lily Anderson (Portland, ME) is Eastern’s top scorer with 52 goals. Senior captain and midfielder Megan Gloster (Agawam, MA) leads the club in points (60) and junior goalie Joslin Wells (Marstons Mills, MA) has played every minute in net. With team-highs in ground balls (62), draw controls (62) and caused turnovers (35), sophomore midfielder Taylor MacDonald (Oak Bluffs, MA)  is the team’s top all-round players. MacDonald, who also has 20 goals and 19 assists, was named MVP of the Little East Conference tournament.

Two-time All-America Kate Sheridan (51-31-82) is Colby’s top offensive threat. Becky Julian adds 44 goals and 18 assists and Amy Campbell 39 goals. Sheridan also leads the Mules with 67 draws and 29 ground balls Sarah Warnke has won nine of 11 decisions in net while Keryn Meierdiercks is 3-3.

The winner advances to face No. 4 nationally-ranked Hamilton College Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. at Clinton, NY.

Softball in 15th NCAA tournament

Softball gained its New England-record 15th NCAA Division III tournament post-season bid as one of three selections from the Little East Conference and is seeded fifth in the regional tournament. Thirty-six conferences received automatic qualification and five independents were selected for the 2008 championship.  The 18 remaining teams in the 59-team field were selected on an at-large basis from automatic qualifying conferences and the remaining independent institutions.

Under the direction of seventh-year head coach Diana Pepin, Eastern earned its first NCAA bid since 1998 after winning 26 and losing 12 and sharing  the regular-season title of the Little East Conference. Eastern, which has not lost more than two games in a row this season, earned a share of the conference regular-season title by sweepingRhode Island College on the final day of the regular season. The Warriors won their first two LEC tournament games before being eliminated with consecutive losses.

Fourth-seeded Cortland (34-11) returns to Plattsburgh after winning the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) tournament at Cardinal Park last weekend and securing an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. The Red Dragons rebounded from a second-round loss to SUNY Brockport to capture three straight games in the SUNYAC tournament. Cortland gave up only two runs in its four tournament wins, posting two shutouts

Through conference tournament play, Eastern had already set a number of individual and team records. Junior first baseman Rachel Denny (East Haddam) broke the season and career home run records this year and also the season RBI mark. Rachel Denny has ten home runs this year and 18 in her career and has broken the 16-year-old season RBI record with 48 this season to move to within 11 of a new career record in that category. Senior catcher Krystle Denny (West Haven) has broken the season record (by one) with 16 doubles and needs only six total bases to break the season record of 98. Pitching-wise, freshman right-handed pitcher Caitlin Cravens (Ellsworth, ME) has come out of the bullpen a season record 16 times.

As a team, the Warriors have set new season standards for the second straight year  for doubles (77) and home runs (27). Entering post-season, sophomore centerfield Ashley Sullivan (Trumbull) has a program season record .462 batting average and both Dennys (no relation) have season records for slugging (Rachel at .785 and Krystle at .769).

Junior righty Katie Pensiero (Stamford) and Cravens have handled the bulk of the pitching this year for Eastern. Pensiero is 13-4 with a 2.26 ERA in 105 1/3 innings and Cravens 10-4 with a 3.43 ERA. In 81 2/3 inning.

Sophomore righty Katie Finch (18-7, 0.84 ERA) was Cortland’s pitcher of record in each of its five SUNYAC tournament games. This year, Finch has allowed only 20 earned runs and has struck out 216 in 167 innings. The Red Dragons are paced offensively by senior outfielder Annemarie Nelson (.369) and sophomore DP Emily Ringen (.354). Four regulars are batting over .300 for Cortland, which also features a 1.39 team ERA and .972 fielding percentage.

This year, Eastern was 6-5 against teams which are participating in the NCAA tournament, defeating conference opponents Rhode Island College and Western Connecticut two out of three times, splitting with Springfield College and Bridgewater State College and losing in eight innings on a walk-off home run to Wisconsin-Eau Claire in Tucson. Rhode Island was the automatic qualifier from the LEC while Western was an at-large selection.

Eastern and Cortland are former NCAA Division III Northeast Region rivals, having met six times between 1988 and 1998 in that regional tournament. Eastern won the first five meetings en route to regional championships in 1988, 1991 and 1992 before the Red Dragons posted a 3-0 win in the second round of the 1998 regional at Cortland, N.Y. This will be the first neutral-site meeting between the teams in NCAA tournament play.

The Warriors are the most successful softball program at any level in New England history, having won five national championships (four coming as a member of NCAA Division III) and 11 consecutive regional championships between 1982 and 1992. Pepin was the starting third baseman on the most recent national title team in 1990.

The Eastern-Cortland winner comes back to face top seed and No. 5 nationally-ranked  Montclair State University Thursday at 4 p.m. The loser plays an elimination game Friday at 10 a.m. against the loser of a Thursday game between No. 2 seeded Endicott and No. 7 seed Keuka College.

Surging baseball team No. 2 seed in LEC

Baseball (27-11-1) aims for its third straight Little East Conference tournament title, fifth in six years and  seventh overall in the 12-year history of the event.

Unranked throughout most of the season, Eastern moved into the regional (4th) and national (28th) rankings last week. The Warriors have won a season-high seven straight games, 13 of their last 14 and 17 of their last 19.

At left: Jimmy Jagodzinski

Eastern’s starting pitching will revolve around senior righties Joe Esposito (East Haven) and Jimmy Jagodzinski (Greenwich), sophomore righty Matt Fontaine (Cranston, RI), and junior righty James Kukucka (Vernon).

Esposito is 5-1 and owns the best ERA (2.53) among starters. A winner of 18 career games, Jagodzinski has won a staff-high eight games (five straight) this season against two losses with a 3.17 ERA. In his last three starts covering 24 2/3 innings, Jagodzinski has struck out 30 and walked none. Saturday, he fanned a career-high 12 without a walk and didn’t allow an earned run in a 4-2 win over Plymouth State University. Kukucka is 4-1 with a 4.59 ERA; Fontaine is 5-1 with a 3.82 ERA, has fanned a staff-high 73 with only nine walks, and has been named conference Pitcher-of-the-Week twice. Seventeen of his strikeouts (two shy of the Eastern record) came in a 5-0 shutout of Western Connecticut a month ago. First-year sophomore righty closer Chris Wojick (Uncasville) leads the staff with 18 appearances, six saves and a 0.56 ERA

The staff features a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 3-for-1.

The pitching status of 2007 national Player-of-the-Year Shawn Gilblair (Windham)

remains unclear due to injury. Gilblair (1-3, 3.70) has started only four games this season on the mound and has not pitched in a month.

Eight regulars are batting over .300. Team batting leader senior leftfielder Jon Dalton (Standish, ME) has taken over a starting spot in recent weeks and brings a team-best .427 batting average and an 11-game hitting streak into the tournament. Gilblair follows at .388 with a team-high 11 home runs and needs one home run to become the first player in program history with 20 home runs and 20 pitching wins.  In his first full season with the varsity, sophomore shortstop John Parke (Middlefield)  put together a 21-game hitting streak during the year and shows a .379 batting average, while sophomore All-America infielder Melvin Castillo (Danbury) is batting .349 and leads all players with 45 RBI and 46 runs.

The first team in LEC history to go undefeated (14-0) in regular-season LEC play last year, Eastern shared second place in this year’s  final conference standings with the University of Southern Maine. Keene State, beaten by Eastern in the finals of both last year’s LEC tournament and in the New England Regionals, captured its first outright LEC regular-season title by winning 12 of 14 games. The Owls swept Rhode Island College Sunday to nail down the title and first-ever No. 1 seed.

Eastern and UMass swapped 3-2 decisions a month ago in Mansfield. UMass senior righty Nick Conway, a former LEC Pitcher-of-the-Year, tossed a complete-game four-hitter in the Beacons’ opening win, and Jagodzinski shut down UMass on three hits through seven innings of the nightcap, with Wojick earning his second save.

UMass is coming off a makeup LEC doubleheader split at UMass Dartmouth today, taking the nightcap, 5-0. A win over Eastern Wednesday would give the Beacons their first two-game winning streak in a month. UMass is batting .269 as a team, with a 6.30 pitching ERA and .938 fielding percentage. Conway is 3-3 in seven starts with a staff-best 2.59 ERA. Junior righty Tom Michael (2-3, 2.92) is second to Conway in innings and has two of the staff’s four saves. Junior DH  Eric Salvador leads the team with a .346 batting average, 64 total bases and 25 RBI, with freshman catcher Timothy Fontaine at .338, 62 RBI and team-tying 30 runs scored.

In their regular-season doubleheader, the teams combined for only two extra-base hits (one double each) and commited 12 errors. Eastern pitchers struck out 16 and walked four, UMass hurlers fanning ten and walking five. Castillo, Parke, and freshman first baseman Andrew Dewing (Swampscott, MA) all had three hits for Eastern, and four players drove in one run each.

little east conference

2008 Baseball Tournament

(Double elimination)

Wednesday, May 7-Saturday, May 10

at Keene, NH

(Keene State College host)

Seeds

1. Keene State College (28-8); 2. EASTERN CONN.. (27-11-1); 3. U. of Southern Maine (29-10); 4. Rhode Island College (24-13); 5. Massachusetts Boston (15-24); 6. Western Conn. (17-22).

Wednesday, May 7

Game 1: Western Conn. vs. Keene State College, 9 a.m.

Game 2: UMass Boston vs. EASTERN CONN., noon

Game 3: Rhode Island College vs. Southern Maine, 3 p.m.

Thursday, May 8

Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 9 a.m.

Game 5: Game 1 winner vs. Game 3 loser, noon

Game 6: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 3 p.m.

*

NCAA Division III

Women’s Lacrosse Tournament

At Waterville, Maine

First Round

EASTERN CONN. (11-6) at Colby College (12-5), 4:30 p.m.

*

NCAA Division III

2008 Fastpitch Softball Regional Tournament

(Double elimination)

Thursday, May 8-Sunday, May 11

at Plattsburgh, NY

(SUNY Plattsburgh host)

Seeds

1. Montclair State U. (42-4); 2. Endicott College (38-4); 3. St. John Fisher College (24-19); 4. SUNY Cortland (34-11);
2. 5. EASTERN CONN. (26-12); 6. Springfield College (29-15); 7. Keuka College (23-7).

Thursday, May 8

Game 1: EASTERN CONN. vs. SUNY Cortland, 10 a.m.

Game 2: St. John Fisher vs. Springfield College, noon

Game 3: Keuka College vs. Endicott College, 2 p.m.

Game 4: Montclair State U. vs. Game 1 winner

Friday, May 9

Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 3 loser, 10 a.m.

Game 6: Game 2 loser vs. Game 4 loser, noon

Game 7: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 2 p.m.

Game 8: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 4 p.m.

Spring, 2006 Articles

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