Feb. 20, 2008
DAYTON, Ohio -
Panther Invitational Game Notes
CATAMOUNTS, TIGERS AND PANTHERS, OH MY Looking to snap a four-game losing skid, the Flyers will travel to Atlanta, Georgia to compete in the Panther Invitational. Dayton will take on Vermont, Tennessee State and tournament host Georgia State in a four-game showcase. Dayton looks for its first win of the season and for head coach Cara Clark.
ABOUT THE CATAMOUNTS Vermont will kick off its 2008 season in the third ever meeting between the two teams. Dayton trails in the series 0-2. Last season the Catamounts defeated the Flyers 3-1 in the Orlando Rebel Games. Vermont is coming off a seventh place finish in the America East conference, with a combined record of 12-29. Senior Aimee Kern, Vermont's top hitter and pitcher leads the Catamounts.
ABOUT THE PANTHERS Dayton and Georgia state will stand toe-to-toe for the first time at the Panther Invitational. The Panthers are off to a red hot 8-0 start including a big win over then-ranked #17 Georgia Tech. On February 12, Georgia State trounced Savannah State back-to-back 33-2 and 19-0. They followed their performance up with a rout of Western Carolina University 21-0 and 8-0.
ABOUT THE TIGERS The Flyers and Tigers square off for a second time since 2000. UD leads the series 1-0. The Tigers are coached by head coach Joyce Maudie, the 2007 Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year. They are led by senior pitcher Amanda Vaught, a second-team OVC selection and member of the all-Newcomer team. She was joined in that honor with freshman Tamara Perkins. On February 16, the Tigers defeated Alabama A&M in their season opener 6-3 and 7-2.
MY OH MEYER Sophomore Molly Meyer might be one of Dayton's strongest assets on offense. As a leadoff hitter, Meyer has eight hits in only 15 at-bats for a season batting average of .533. Meyer has collected a team-high 10 bases this season and has an on base percentage of .588. Meyer went 3-of-4 inside the batter's box in her second game against North Dakota and 3-of-4 against SDSU. Lifetime she is batting a whopping .360 at the plate.
MACI'S DAY PARADE Sophomore slugger Anne Maci has been making a name for herself at the plate. On February 9 against North Dakota, Maci was 2-of-3, collected one double and drove in two runs. On the very next day, she went 2-of-3 again this time driving one runner in against the Fighting Sioux.
GOING YARD While she taken one for a ride yet this season, senior Blair Crabtree doubled her career home run total last season with three blasts in 2007. Her six home runs moves her up to seventh on the all-time record list. She is only three homers away from taking the fifth spot on the all-time list.
SIXTEEN CANDLES At the UNI Classic, Blair Crabtree went 2-for-3 in back-to-back games on her birthday February 9. She also collected one double, one RBI and crossed the plate twice. The icing on the cake was a .667 batting average on the day.
PARTY STARTERS If there is one thing the Flyers have a knack for, it is getting on the scoreboard early. The Flyers are outscoring their opponent in the opening two frames 11 runs in the first two innings this season compared to their opponents four. UD also is outscoring the opposition 5-0 in the first inning.
THE HITS KEEP COMING Junior Mollie Schrank keeps piling up the hits for the Flyers. Schrank has four hits in 2008 moving her career total to 85 hits in 92 games. While she is not on the all-time career list for UD, she is 38 hits from joining the top 10.
"MOLL"ING IT OVER In addition to her 85 career hits, Schrank has also placed herself third among all Flyers past and present in batting average. She is currently batting a lifetime average of .327. The Fairfield, Ohio junior will more than likely play her 100th game in March.
THE ZIONSVILLE CANNON Senior pitcher Erin Lafayette has thrown 98 strikeouts in her career. That total puts her in ninth place in Flyer history and only three strikeouts from taking eight place overall. Melissa Myher holds the all-time record for strikeouts in a career with 498.
SEVEN KINDS OF SMOKE While her 99 strikeouts is nothing to scoff at, Erin Lafayette is also one of the most efficient pitchers in Flyer history. LaFayette's has a current ratio of 3.16 strikeouts per 7 innings.
THAT'S A RAPPE! Sophomore Eva Rappe knows a thing or two about sitting batters down. Last season Rappe collected 21 strikeouts in 63.2 innings pitched. In 10.1 innings pitched this season, she has already sent six batters back to the dugout with their heads hung, including four strikeouts against North Dakota on February 10. She is on pace to break her career-best mark in only 13 games.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Senior catcher Laura Matthews has been a force behind the plate for the Flyers. Matthews has already thrown two runners out that have dared to steal a base on her watch. This compares with last year's mark of five runners thrown out in 32 games.
FEATS OF STRENGTH Freshman Emily Stegeman is making an impact already through four games played. Stegeman has three runs on four hits. However, more impressive are her two RBI's and two doubles that she has already amassed. Her RBI total ties her for fourth on the team, and her run total ties her for first with Anne Maci and Molly Meyer.
KICKIN' WITH KJ Coming into the season, junior Katie Jordan had only played stepped up to the plate 15 times in her entire career with a batting average of .067. Jordan has already been at-bat 12 times, collecting one double, one run and one RBI.
COMING THROUGH IN THE CLUTCH Sophomore Megan Lee has only played in two games. In fact, she has only had two at-bats, but her performance at the plate has been nothing short of spectacular. In the second game against North Dakota, Lee stepped in and hit a double, driving home two Flyers.
THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM The beginning of the Flyers season on the ninth came 31 days earlier than last season. In that time, the Flyers will potentially play in 14 games, weather permitting of course. When the dust settles the Flyers will have potentially played in 22 contests before facing Atlantic 10 competition. Only two other A-10 teams started their season as early as UD this year.
DAYTON PREDICTED TO FINISH TENTH IN ATLANTIC 10 A-10 Coaches have predicted that the University of Dayton Flyers softball team will finish tenth in Atlantic 10 play this season. This season ten letter-winners return to the young Flyer squad.Rounding out the top six spots in the coaches poll are UMass, Fordham, Saint Louis, Charlotte, Temple and Saint Joseph's.
SOFTBALL INKS THREE University of Dayton Softball signed three new faces during the early signing period. Brandy Brown, Raime Cronkhite and Kristina Ortiz will don the red and blue for UD next season.
Brandy Brown is a back-to-back All-County, All-Conference and All-District student-athlete in both 2006 and 2007. Cronkhite has helped her team to two City League Tournament Championships, as well as garnering All-District and All-Area Team honors in 2006 and 2007, and in her two previous seasons, Ortiz has been picked to the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section's Second Team. Also in 2007, Ortiz was named CIF Second Team All-Area. The three signings mark the beginning of Clark's first full recruiting class at Dayton.
GOCKEN NAMED JUNIOR COLLEGE CATCHER OF THE YEAR Lyndsi Gocken was among 10 catchers named the 2007 Diamond Sports Catcher of the Year. The award, presented by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and Diamond Sports, is given to the top catcher from NFCA member schools. Gocken, a recent transfer from Joliet Junior College, was the recipient of the award for the National Junior College Athletics Association Division III level.
PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES UD will begin the season on a 25 game road swing taking them through two time zones and nine different states. In addition, the Flyers will play in five different tournaments before heading into conference play at Charlotte in March. Over the course of the season they are expected to log more than 10,000 miles on the road round-trip.
DYNAMIC DUO IN DISTANT LANDS Last summer, sophomore Megan Lee and freshman Emily Stegeman traveled to China as part of a softball exhibition. The two of them traveled as part of the Miami Valley Xpress club team to promote softball for the 2008 Olympic Games that is going to be held in Beijing.
UD A NATIONAL LEADER IN LATEST GSR REPORT The University of Dayton Division of Athletics maintained its position as one of the top academic achievers in the NCAA in the latest breakdown of the Graduation Success Rate data released in November. UD has an institutional GSR of 95 percent which ranks first among the Atlantic 10 Conference and 16th overall in the nation. Success in the classroom is nothing new for UD student-athletes. The Flyers combined cumulative grade point average is above a 3.0. In addition, UD has had 27 Academic All-Americans in the last six years. Also, at least one Dayton student-athlete has been named an Academic All-American for 22 straight years.
DAYTON NAMES Cara Clark HEAD COACH Cara Clark, a Clarke College graduate and the former head softball coach who led the Crusaders to a first-ever NCAA tournament berth and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances was named the new head coach for the University of Dayton's softball program on July 9, 2007. In her six years at CC, Clark was instrumental in the program's success. Clark led the Crusaders to the NCAA Tournament in 2003 and 2004, and had five consecutive 20-plus win seasons while she was with the Crusaders. Additionally, four out of the six years the team was ranked in the top 25 nationally in GPA by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. In 2003, the Crusaders made a first-ever NCAA tournament berth, claimed the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference Championship and won a school record 27 games. During her time, the Crusaders produced 28 All Conference honorees, six NFCA All Region honorees, and one Conference Player of the Year.
DAYTON NAMES Christine Steines ASSISTANT COACH On August 10, 2007 head coach Cara Clark announced that Christine Steines would be joining the Flyer softball staff. Steines previously worked alongside Clark at Clarke College, helping the Crusaders to back-to-back 20-plus win seasons. Prior to her time at Clarke, Steines served as a graduate assistant at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio where she helped with recruiting and the team's strength and conditioning program.
