Feb. 26, 2009
2009 Frost Classic Central
Complete Release in PDF Format | 
FLYERS EMBARK ON FROST CLASSIC
The University of Dayton softball squad hopes to reverse its fortunes at the Frost Classic this weekend in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Flyers will play five games in three days - Friday, Feb. 27-Sunday, March 1 - at the tournament hosted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dayton opens up against Princeton on Friday at 12:30 p.m. ET. The Flyers will also face Chattanooga, Lipscomb, Radford and wrap up the tournament against Valparaiso. Both Princeton and Valpo will play their first games of the season at the Frost Classic.
Dayton is 2-7 after going 0-5 at the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islander Invitational Feb. 20-22, the Flyers' first game action outdoors this season. After committing just one error in four indoor games at the UNI-Dome Classic, UD had 11 errors in Texas; including four against Minnesota.
On the flipside, junior Molly Meyer hit .467 at the Islander Invite with her third double this season and first homerun. She leads the Flyers with a .448 batting average and 13 runs scored. Senior Katie Jordan and junior Anne Maci both batted .400 last weekend. Jordan hit her team-leading second triple at the Islander Invitational and is now batting .409 on the season.
Junior Eva Rappe posted a 4.05 ERA and struck out 12 in Corpus Christi. She has struck out a team-high 22 and lowered her ERA from 7.00 to 5.30.
SCOUTING PRINCETON (0-0)
Conference: Ivy League
Series: Princeton leads 1-0, winning the only meeting 2-0 in 1998 in Winthrop's tournament.
Key Players: Junior Kelsey Quist hit a team-best .360 last season and tied for the team lead with 14 homeruns. Jamie Lettire, a junior first baseman/pitcher, also hit 14 homeruns last season and was named Third Team All-America and Ivy League Co-Player of the Year.
Key Stat: Princeton lost seven of its first nine games in 2008 and went on to post a 25-24 record last season, including 18-2 in the Ivy League to secure its 17th conference title and earning its eighth NCAA Tournament berth. The Tigers will open their 2009 season at the Frost Classic against Dayton.
SCOUTING CHATTANOOGA (5-11)
Conference: Southern
Series: Chattanooga leads 1-0 after a 2-0 victory Feb. 20, 2004 at the Sonic Challenge, which was hosted by the Mocs.
Key Players: Sophomore Michelle Fuzzard leads the squad with a .349 batting average. Toni Hutchison has a team-high 11 RBI and four homeruns in 16 starts.
Key Stat: The Mocs were shut out in the last tournament they played, the Littlewood Classic in Tempe, Ariz. UTC lost 10 of its last 11 games after starting the season 4-2 at the Chattanooga Challenge.
SCOUTING LIPSCOMB (6-3)
Conference: Atlantic Sun
Series: The series is tied 1-1 after Dayton and the Lady Bisons split a double header on March 19, 2005 at Lipscomb. The Flyers lost the first game 5-4, but bounced back with an 11-10 victory.
Key Players: Junior Kellie Sirus leads Lipscomb with a .393 average. The Lady Bison pitching staff of Christen Campbell, Whitney Kiihnl and Alaina Jacobson have struck out 52 and own an ERA of 2.66.
Key Stats: The Lady Bisons, who won three of their last four to claim the Panther Invitational in Atlanta, Ga., are 6-0 when allowing their opponents less than two runs scored this season. Lipscomb is outscoring opponents 13-3 in the fourth inning in its first nine games.
SCOUTING RADFORD (4-1)
Conference: Big South
Series: Dayton leads 2-1. The two teams split a doubleheader on April 5, 1997. The Flyers won the first game 2-1, and fell in the nightcap, 5-4.
Key Players: After five games, junior Hope Creasy is batting .500 with 7 RBI. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Kellie Snooks has a 1.05 ERA in 13.1 innings on the mound.
Key Stats: The Highlanders have won four straight, outscoring their opponents 25-8. They went 4-1 at the Georgia State Eagle Classic. Opponents are batting just .197.
SCOUTING VALPARAISO (0-0)
Conference: Horizon
Series: Valpo leads 5-3, but the Flyers won the last meeting 3-1 on March 4, 2001.
Key Player: Senior Ashley Wolter led Valparaiso in nearly every offensive category, including her .324 batting average and six homeruns.
Key Stat: The Crusaders led the nation in stolen bases last season. Karen Korb led the team with 29 and is back for her senior campaign.
THE DIRT ON DAYTON
Last season the Flyers achieved their first 20-win season in three years and more than doubled their Atlantic 10 win total from 2007. Cara Clark's 20 wins was the most by any first-year head coach at UD. A vast majority of the team numbers improved from the 2007 season to 2008. The Flyers return nine players, including six position starters, and a starting pitcher. The team also features six incoming freshmen. After going 0-4 in the UNI-Dome Classic, the Flyers went on to record a 10-1 record in neutral-site games.
THE ELK GROVE GANGBUSTER
Molly Meyer scored six of Dayton's seven runs at the Islander Invitational in Corpus Christi, Texas (Feb. 20-22). The junior went 7-of-15 (.467) and hit her first homerun of the season - an in the park homerun at that. She also belted her team-leading third double during the tournament.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING
Freshman Courtney Kutsulis has two hits this season, both doubles. Her two doubles are second highest on the team.
START ME UP
The Flyers get off to a quick start, and have outscored opponents 19-13 in the first two innings after nine games. The fourth inning has been UD's detriment where they have been outscored 24-3.
WEEKEND OF FIRSTS
The Flyers posted a 2-2 record at the UNI-Dome Classic in Cedar Falls, Iowa (Feb. 7-8) where several "firsts" were achieved. With its 10-5 victory over North Dakota on Sunday, Feb. 8, Dayton won its first-ever indoor game. Also...
•Sophomore Emily Stegeman cranked out her first collegiate homerun, a two-run dinger in the bottom of the first to spark the Flyers to a six-run inning.
•Also in the first frame in her first at bat this season, sophomore Allie Falk delivered a two-run triple, her first collegiate three-bagger.
•In that same inning sophomore Alicia Nichols tallied her first collegiate RBI, with a single to give Dayton a 6-4 lead over the Fighting Sioux.
•Freshman Courtney Kutsulis also got in on the action, registering her first collegiate hit, an RBI double in the bottom of the third.
•Senior Katie Jordan's first career collegiate triple came on Feb. 8 against South Dakota State.
A CAREER DAY
Senior Katie Jordan and junior Eva Rappe enjoyed personal bests in Dayton's 10-5 win over North Dakota on Feb. 8. Jordan posted a career-best, single-game performance of 3 RBI against the Fighting Sioux, while Rappe had her best single-game performance on the mound with a career-high seven Ks.
SOUTHSIDE HITWOMEN
Dayton tallied 10 double-digit hit games last season, including its contest last year against North Dakota when it had 13, just two off the season-high of 15 against IUPUI (March 24, 2008). The Flyers continued the trend, smacking 11 hits this season against the Fighting Sioux on Feb. 8, 2009.
ROOKIE RUBBER ARM
Freshman Sarah Wedel threw a three-hit shutout in her first career collegiate start, propelling the Flyers to an 8-0 win against South Dakota State. She is the first Dayton freshman to earn a shutout in her first collegiate start (since UD pitching records were kept in 1990).
ROAD WARRIORS
The Flyer softball squad has already travelled nearly 4,000 miles by air and road this season after visits to Cedar Falls, Iowa for the UNI-Dome Classic, and Corpus Christi, Texas for the Islander Invitational. Dayton will travel nearly 12,000 miles during the 2009 season.
RUNNING OVER THE COMPETITION
The Flyers' 8-0, five-inning, run rule victory against South Dakota State on Feb. 8 at the UNI-Dome Classic is the first UD run-rule win for Dayton since April 25, 2004 it downed La Salle, 9-0.
DAYTON DOMINATES A-10 HONOR ROLL
The University of Dayton Division of Athletics continued its long tradition of success in the classroom by placing 108 student-athletes on the Atlantic 10 Commissioner's Honor Roll for the Fall 2008 semester. The A-10 Honor Roll recognizes each student-athlete with a 3.5 grade-point average or higher during. Dayton was second among the 14 A-10 Conference institutions in number of student-athletes recognized despite sponsoring fewer sports than all but one school in the league. The Flyers were just two shy of La Salle's 110 student-athletes honored on the list. The Explorers sponsor 20 sports that compete in the A-10 compared to UD's 14. The following softball players helped UD reach 108: Katie Jordan, Anne Maci, Molly Meyer, Alicia Nichols and Eva Rappe.
RAPPE YOUR MIND AROUND THIS
Junior pitcher Eva Rappe broke the UD record for saves in a season with three and also broke the previous record for career saves. The Flyers were tied for first in the Atlantic 10 for saves last season with 4.
GOING OUT WITH A BANG
In the Flyers' last series of the 2008 season, which came against Saint Louis, sophomore Emily Stegeman (4-for-7), and juniors Molly Meyer (3-for-6) and Megan Lee (4-for-7) combined to hit .550.
THE MEYER MASSACRE
Junior Molly Meyer brings a career batting average of .336 into the 2009 campaign. She is Dayton's leading returning hitter, after hitting .339 last season with 58 hits. She led the Flyers with 37 runs scored (5th in the A-10) and three triples. Her .336 average going into the season is fourth all-time.
THE GOOD HANDS PEOPLE
Last year the Flyers finished first in the Atlantic 10 in Team Fielding Percentage (.968) and a conference-low 47 errors. Junior Molly Meyer had a phenomenal .988 fielding percentage in center field and junior first baseman Anne Maci was right behind her with .986 and only five errors. Maci was fourth in A-10 in opportunities and putouts, recording 347 and 322 respectively. Maci was tied first in fielding double plays with 10. Juniors Eva Rappe and Megan Lee did not post a singe error.
TRIPLE YOUR GAINS
Eva Rappe nearly tripled her strikeout total, sitting down 65 last season, after fanning 21 in her rookie campaign. She had more than four times the wins, notching nine in 2008, after going 2-7 as a freshman.
BATTING FOR THE BOOKS
During the 2008 season, the Flyers came up just short of tying the UD single-season record for team batting average. UD posted a .275 average, one-thousandth of a point off the mark of .276 set by the 2000 squad. Its .275 average was third in the Atlantic 10.
WALK LIKE A FLYER
The 2008 squad had a knack for spotting a bad pitch. The Flyers drew 114 walks last season, just six off the UD record of 120 set in 2005. Senior Katie Jordan had 21 walks, just three behind graduated Laura Matthews' team-leading 24.
SAC IT TO ME
The Flyers were second in the A-10 in sacrifice bunts with 59 in 2008. Junior Megan Lee had seven and both Katie Jordan and Molly Meyer had six.
RUNNING THE TABLE
The Flyers finished fourth in the A-10 in both runs scored (194) and runs batted in (171). Junior Molly Meyer was fifth in the Atlantic 10 in runs scored with 37 last season. Junior Anne Maci is Dayton's leading returner in the category, bringing home 31 RBI. Maci also paced the Flyers in doubles, smacking 12 of Dayton's 56, which was fifth-best in the A-10.
DAYTON ADDS FOUR WITH `09 CLASS
University of Dayton head softball coach Cara Clark announced the signing of four student-athletes to National Letters of Intent that will make up the 2009 class. The class includes a versatile group that can pay immediate dividends for an already rising Flyer softball squad. The class includes pitcher Amanda Daly of McHenry, Ill., middle infielder Carlyn Harlow of DuPont, Wash., outfielder Kathleen Maloof of Indianapolis, and outfielder Shelby Pohlman of Olathe, Kansas.
UD TRIO TAKES ON ITALY
Three Dayton Flyers softball players experienced the trip of a lifetime this summer (Aug. 3-12), competing for the USA Athletes International softball team in Italy. Sophomores Allie Falk and Emily Stegeman, along with freshman Raime Cronkhite, represented UD and the United States of America in the Arezzo Softball/Baseball International Tournament. The Team USAs consisted of women from Illinois, California, Georgia, South Carolina, Iowa, Ohio and Michigan.
FLYERS HAVE GAME AND SMARTS
The University of Dayton softball team was named to the Girls Got Game/NFCA All-Academic Team. Dayton posted a team GPA of 3.363, which was the 17th best in the NCAA Division I category. The Flyers were just one of two schools from the Atlantic 10 to be named to the Top 100. Only one other university in Ohio posted a higher GPA than Dayton - Akron was No. 13 with a 3.390 team GPA. success in the classroom. Sophomores Allie Falk and Alicia Nichols, along with recent graduates Erin Lafayette and Laura Matthews, also received individual kudos and were named NFCA All-America Scholar Athletes. Each had a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher.
HARMAN JOINS FLYERS STAFF
Sarah Harman joined the Flyer softball team as the assistant coach in January of 2009. Harman replaces Christine Steines, who left Dayton to take the head coaching job at Otterbein College, a Division III institution located just outside Columbus. A native of Port Clinton, Ohio, Harman returns to her home state after coaching stints in Texas, Virginia and Indiana. She comes to the Flyers after serving as an assistant coach and lecturer at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas.
