Muhlenberg College 2001 Spring Sports Update

Muhlenberg College

2001 Spring Sports Update

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For the Week of April 9 to April 15
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News and notes about Muhlenberg athletics

SOFTBALL IN CLOSE RACE
With only two weeks remaining in the Centennial Conference regular season, the Muhlenberg softball team is in a close race for first place with Western Maryland, Ursinus and Gettysburg. That should come as no surprise, since those four schools have combined to win every CC championship. The Mules, who are the defending champions, have already split with Gettysburg and are scheduled to face the other two teams on April 21 and 24. The top four teams qualify for the first CC Tournament, the winner of which earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Standings through games of April 14:

                   CC  overall
Western Md.......10-0   21-3
Gettysburg........9-1   17-4
MUHLENBERG........8-1   16-12
Ursinus...........7-3   19-9
F & M.............4-6    8-14
Washington........3-7    8-12
Dickinson.........2-8    6-16
Swarthmore........1-8    1-17
Haverford.........1-11   1-26

TOTH NAMED PLAYER OF WEEK
Freshman Becki Toth has been Centennial Conference softball player of the week after leading Muhlenberg to six straight CC wins. Toth batted .556 in the six games with 9 runs scored, 7 RBI and 7 stolen bases. She belted her first career home run against Dickinson and tied a school record with three stolen bases in the first game of the Dickinson doubleheader. Through games of April 8, Toth ranked second in the league in both batting average (.460) and stolen bases (11).

Monday, April 9
SOFTBALL Messiah 9, Muhlenberg 3; Muhlenberg 1, Messiah 0. Freshman Danielle DeLucia recorded her first career shutout as Muhlenberg salvaged a split of this non-league doubleheader. DeLucia struck out 7 in a game that was shortened to five innings by lightning. The Mules won the game despite getting no-hit by Jaime Batchelor. The only run scored in the third when freshman Jamie Slivka walked, went to second on a wild pitch, to third on a sacrifice, and scored on an infield error. Lightning also struck in the sixth inning of the first game, but it was in the form of a five-run rally by Messiah. The loss snapped Muhlenberg’s seven-game winning streak. Click here for line scores.
WOMEN’S GOLF finished third at Muhlenberg Spring Classic. Muhlenberg won the “Division III” half of its own tournament, defeating Gettysburg (by 17 strokes), Ursinus (by 61) and an incomplete Franklin & Marshall squad. Junior Courtney Sessa was fourth overall, and third among Division III golfers, with a 101. Senior Jessica McCourt was two strokes behind.
MEN’S GOLF finished fifth at Franklin & Marshall Invitational. Junior Rich Jacobs shot a 78 to lead the Mules. Click here for results.

Tuesday, April 10
SOFTBALL Muhlenberg 3, Swarthmore 2. Freshman Kate Dischino’s sacrifice fly in the top of the 12th plated the winning run as Muhlenberg survived a scare from Swarthmore to win its eighth straight Centennial Conference game. The second game of the scheduled doubleheader was not played. The Mules tied the score in the seventh on a two-out RBI single by freshman Amanda Ibey, then took a 2-1 lead in the 10th when junior Lori Blanchfield singled in a run. Ibey started the 12th inning at second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Junior Angie Tyson set a school record by pitching all 12 innings. She struck out 9 and worked out of a second-and-third jam in the bottom of the 12th to end Muhlenberg’s longest game since 1983 (a 14-inning game against Swarthmore). Click here for line score.
BASEBALL Ursinus 6, Muhlenberg 3. Two-time defending Centennial Conference champion Ursinus took advantage of three errors to score three runs in the decisive fourth inning en route to the victory. The Mules closed to within 5-3 on a two-out, two-run single by sophomore Ben Carr in the sixth, but did not get a runner into scoring position the final three innings. Junior Ben Leisawitz went 3-for-4 with an RBI double. Click here for line score.
LACROSSE Muhlenberg 12, Bryn Mawr 10. Senior Miruna Lovin had 5 goals and 2 assists to close in on two school scoring records and lead the Mules won their third game of the year. Lovin now has 181 career points, two fewer than all-time leader Katie Kenny (1996-99), and 147 goals, five away from Kenny’s mark. Junior Teresa Lunardi added 3 goals to help Muhlenberg build a 12-6 lead midway through the second half. Click here for box score.
WOMEN’S TENNIS Swarthmore 7, Muhlenberg 2. The Mules’ six-match winning streak was snapped by the first-place Garnet. Muhlenberg got singles wins from freshmen Sarah Niebler (in three sets) and Megan Schreiber. Click here for box score.

Thursday, April 12
SOFTBALL vs. Washington (Md.), rained out
BASEBALL Ursinus 11, Muhlenberg 10. Ursinus scored four runs in the bottom of the 10th inning for a dramatic win against the Mules, who twice were one strike away from victory. The loss spoiled a gutsy pitching effort by junior Joshua Carter, who went the distance to become the first Mule since 1976 to pitch more than 9 innings in a game. Muhlenberg opened up a 7-1 lead on the two-time defending conference champions in the seventh on a two-run double by Carter and a three-run homer by sophomore Carl Kerstetter. The Bears came back to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth on a two-out, two-strike single. Kerstetter led off the 10th with a double to trigger a three-run rally that featured run-scoring extra-base hits with two out by sophomores Ben Carr and Justin Rubenstein. Click here for line score.
LACROSSE Gettysburg 20, Muhlenberg 4. Senior Miruna Lovin tied the Mules’ all-time scoring record with two goals in a loss to the 10th-ranked Bullets. Click here for box score.
WOMEN’S TENNIS Muhlenberg 7, Gettysburg 2. Senior Kerri Waldowski, sophomore Samantha Evans and freshman Sarah Niebler all were double winners to lead the Mules to their first victory ever against Gettysburg and their school-record fifth Centennial Conference win of the season. Waldowski teamed up with senior Marissa Lutzer to topple a Bullet No. 2 doubles team that had been undefeated, and Evans and Niebler both recorded singles wins against previously undefeated players. Freshman Mackenzie Parke posted an impressive 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 1 singles. Click here for box score.
MEN’S TENNIS Moravian 5, Muhlenberg 2. In a match in which five of the six singles contests had at least one set go to a tiebreaker, Moravian prevailed to clinch a share of the Matte Award for the 2000-01 school year. Muhlenberg needs to win at women’s tennis and men’s golf to forge a tie. Sophomore Brad Scheller was a double winner for the Mules. Click here for box score.

Friday, April 13
BASEBALL Gettysburg 8-10, Muhlenberg 6-2. Good Friday was not a good Friday on the baseball diamond for the Mules, who were swept by Gettysburg. Seniors Garret Pachtinger and Marcus Mattielli had three hits apiece in the opener, in which Muhlenberg cut an 8-2 deficit to 8-6 in the final two innings. Sophomore Kevin Komeshok pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless long relief in the second game. Click here for line scores.

Saturday, April 14
TRACK AND FIELD at Greyhound Invitational. Junior Will Elson was involved in two record-breaking performances and senior Katrina Beck improved her chances of making the NCAA Championships in this non-scoring meet. Elson inched closer to the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:52.74 while winning the 800 meters, knocking 35 one-hundredths of a second off his previous school record with a 1:53.24. Elson also ran the third leg in the 4x800-meter relay team that broke a 12-year-old school record. Beck, who had previously qualified provisionally with a high jump of 1.64 meters, won at Moravian with a mark of 1.66 (5-5¼). The automatic qualifying height is 1.68. The Mules also rang up two ECAC qualifiers in the 400 meters, freshmen Josh Cohen and Richard Kipp. Click here for Muhlenberg highlights.

Questions or comments? Send mail to falk@muhlenberg.edu

Last updated April 15, 2001