SELINSGROVE, Pa. — While both the Susquehanna University baseball and softball teams came away from their Spring Break trips to Florida and California respectively with sub-.500 records, both learned from the experiences and are better prepared for their northern openers this week.
After a 2-1 start, the baseball team of second-year head coach Tim Briggs dropped its final four games at the Cocoa Expo Complex in Cocoa, Fla., and opens MAC Commonwealth Conference play Saturday in a 1 p.m. doubleheader at defending league champion Elizabethtown (6-2) with a 2-5 record. While he no doubt had hoped for a better record in Florida, Briggs tried to use the trip as a way to assess all his players and was less concerned with the team’s record.
As expected, the return to metal bats has boosted the offensive numbers, with the Crusaders sporting a hefty .313 team batting average and scoring average of six runs per game. But other teams are also batting .323 against a Crusader pitching staff which presently has a suspect 6.40 team earned-run average. Defense has also been a problem early with 18 errors down South for a .917 team fielding percentage, although Briggs expects that to improve once he settles into a regular line-up for the northern schedule.
The Crusader softball team had a similar experience during its seven games in the Sun West Tournament hosted by Chapman University in Orange, Calif. After dropping their opener to Division II Concordia (Minn.), the Crusaders won their next two games to get to 2-1 — only to lost three of their final four to return home at 3-4. Fortunately, last Friday’s 11-3 win over Albion allowed sixth-year head coach Vince Anselmo to become the ninth active Susquehanna coach to have 100 wins — presently at 100-74 (.575). Anselmo attributes the 3-4 start primarily to the youth of his team, which regularly starts at least five freshmen. Because of the youth, the seven games of experience against quality competition — including host Chapman, which is the defending Division III runners-up and presently ranked fourth nationally — will only help Susquehanna when it plays its home openers Wednesday in a 3 p.m. doubleheader vs. York (2-0).
Unlike baseball, the softball team doesn’t have a clear-cut strength or deficiency, although its 4.20 staff earned-run average is considerably higher than its 1.94 mark of a year ago, while the .923 fielding percentage is much lower than its nationally-ranked .954 clip in 1999. The team batting average of .274 is similar to the offensive mark posted on last season’s 20-15 team, which batted .284.
THE BASEBALL REPORT
Senior Andy Berwager (Hanover/South Western H.S.) came into the season off back-to-back second-team MAC Commonwealth All-Star campaigns at shortstop, and appears to be shooting for first-team in 2000. The lead-off hitter who is also the team’s top starting pitcher, Berwager is batting a team best .500 (11 for 22) with a whopping .577 on-base percentage which includes four walks. Inside the percentages are a double, four runs batted in, and seven runs scored. His fast start presently ranks him seventh in both career batting average (.359) and on-base percentage (.459). On the mound, Berwager is a “hard luck” 0-1 with a 6.17 earned-run average which includes a staff high 16 strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings. He pitched effectively in both his starts, watching the relief corps squander a 6-4 lead vs. Catholic, and then getting only one run of support in a 4-1 loss to Waynesburg during the final game in Florida.
Junior first baseman Lyle Hosler (Lititz/Manheim Township H.S.) is also a returning second-team All-Star who had a productive Florida trip, batting .444 (8 of 18) with a triple, five RBI and a team best nine runs scored. Hosler has a team high .615 on-base percentage which included four walks and being hit by a pitch four times. A runner-up for the 1999 Easton Redline Defensive Award by Collegiate Baseball magazine – making him one of the top seven defensive players nationally in Division III according to the publication – Hosler also had a solid defensive trip. After an uncharacteristic two errors in the opener, he settled down to go error-free in the final six games – coming away with a .953 fielding percentage.
A new star may have also emerged from the southern trip in freshman rightfielder and number-two hitter Tim Ronchi (Factoryville/Lackawanna Trail H.S.), who easily has the team’s best slugging percentage at .783 with two doubles and three triples. The three triples leave him just one shy of already tying for fourth most in a season at Susquehanna. Also the starting split end in his rookie collegiate football season, Ronchi hit .435 (10 for 23) and tied for the team lead in RBI with seven while starting six of the seven games.
Ronchi tied for the RBI lead with senior leftfielder/pitcher Denny Bowers (Westminster, Md./Westminster H.S.), who hit .273 (6 of 22) from his clean-up position. Despite a slow start, Bowers still has the fifth-highest career batting average at Susquehanna (.367) and is tied for fifth in on-base clip (.465). A sore arm limited him to just an inning-and-two-thirds of pitching, although he made the most of it by getting all five batters – three by strikeout.
Some of the best pitching in the trip belonged to sophomore right-hander Patrick Quilliam (Nichols Hills, Okla./Casady H.S.) and junior transfer and right-hander Lee Rogers (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry H.S.).
An off-speed pitcher, Quillian was effective in both of his starts as he compiled a 1-0 record and 1.13 ERA in eight innings of work – striking out five and walking just one. Now 3-0 in his collegiate career, Quillian beat Thiel and had a 4-1 lead against powerful Johns Hopkins before having to leave the game with shoulder stiffness.
A transfer to Susquehanna by way of both Endicott and Elizabethtown Colleges, Rogers picked up saves in both of the team’s two wins, and then relinquished just three earned runs in five innings before taking the loss in his start vs. Wesley. Rogers has compiled a 2.89 ERA with eight strikeouts and just three walks in nine-and-a-third innings of work thus far.
THE SOFTBALL REPORT
Senior captain Lisa Stack (Swoyersville/Wyoming Valley West H.S.) had a solid California trip all-around, despite being bothered by two muscle pulls. Alternating between leftfield and first base, Stack batted .364 (9 of 22) with a double, two runs batted in, and a team high six runs scored – moving up two more spots on the program’s career hit list to seventh with 95 (Record: 150, Tennille Shenk, 1996-99). She is also fourth in career runs scored with 78, fifth in at-bats with 340, and tied for eighth in doubles with 13.
Freshman Shana Lalo (Bethlehem/Northampton H.S.) split time at first with Stack, starting at Stack’s old position at shortstop when she wasn’t playing first, and batted a team high .400 (8 for 20). Also with a team high .478 on-base percentage with three walks, Lalo had the team’s lone hit on a bunt single in the loss to nationally-ranked Chapman and sophomore pitcher Tiffany Hoskins. Possessing one of the best arms on the team, she fielded at a .949 clip with just two errors in her collegiate debut.
Another successful freshman debut was left-handed lead-off hitter and starting centerfielder Teresa Ely (Montrose/Montrose H.S.). With some of the best speed since Anselmo has been coach, Ely batted .333 (8 for 24) – also using her speed for range in center.
The team’s top power hitter and run producer was yet another freshman in designated hitter Christina Keister (West Milton/Lewisburg H.S.), who drove in a team high six runs on a team best .579 slugging percentage. Keister had a double, triple and the squad’s lone home run in California. She also proved to be a clutch hitter as she drove in the first run and then scored the tying run in a seventh-inning rally in the first win vs. Albion, and then had the bases-clearing triple in a five-run fourth in the second win over the Britons.
Among the pitchers, junior right-hander and two-time MAC Commonwealth All-Star Kristen Hogan (Succasunna, N.J./Roxbury H.S.) was the “workhorse” – pitching 32 of 45 innings while compiling a 3-2 record and 2.84 ERA. Hogan has 25 strikeouts and just eight walks and remains second in career strikeouts at Susquehanna with 259 (Record: 323, Judy Sholtis, 1983-86). She is also third in career ERA (1.75) and fourth in both career wins (26) and winning percentage (.650, 26-14) on the program’s all-time lists.
