April 18, 2011
WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University softball team will conclude its non-conference schedule with a game against the George Washington Colonials tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Guy Mason Field. After the contest against their local rival, the Hoyas' final 10 match ups will all be against BIG EAST opponents.
GU (11-33, 4-6 BE) will be back in action just two days after splitting a doubleheader against St. John's on Senior Day at Guy Mason Field, falling in game one, 8-7, before taking game two in five innings, 10-2. The program honored seniors Melissa Conners(Wellington, Fla./Wellington), Kristi Preuss (LaPlata, Md./LaPlata) and Jillian Webb (Hemet, Calif./Hemet) before the games and also welcomed back eleven alumnae on the field in between the two contests.
Georgetown belted out 17 runs, its most in back-to-back games all season, on 19 hits and hit an impressive .352 as a unit to split the doubleheader and stay in the chase for a berth in the BIG EAST Softball Championships. The team's game two win was the first time in program history that the Hoyas have defeated a conference team by way of the mercy rule.
The Hoyas are 2-2 in their last four games, splitting a pair against Longwood before the games against the Red Storm. Over that span Georgetown has batted .304 (35-for-115), scoring 22 runs with 16 RBI, and gotten contributions from up and down the lineup.
In those games Callie Eward (Oak Hill, Va./Oakton) went 4-for-9 (.444), Rachel Nersesian (San Leandro, Calif./Bishop O'Dowd) hit .300, Cara Savarese (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset) managed 5 hits in 12 at bats (.417) and Jenna Stark (Huntington Beach, Calif./Orange Lutheran) batted .375 (6-for-16).
Sophomore Shikara Lowe (Beaverton, Ore./Jesuit) and junior Regan Page (Atlanta, Ga./Greater Atlanta Christian) also are coming off successful weeks, especially increasing their production against St. John's on Sunday. Lowe batted .476 (7-for-15) in the four games, including a 5-for-9 (.556) effort against the Red Storm where she drove in five runs and scored four times. Page came off the bench in game one against SJU and promptly drove an RBI double to right field to spark a day where she hit 4-for-5 (.800) with three RBI.
Stark leads the Hoyas in batting and hits with a .328 average and 39 base knocks in 42 starts. She is third on the team in doubles (7), second in RBI (16) and tied for third in home runs (2). Savarese is batting .310 on the year, with one quarter of her 36 hits being doubles. Lowe paces the squad in runs (19) and RBI (17), is second in home runs (3) and third in hits (37) and average (.298). Her 10 doubles are tied for seventh in the BIG EAST.
Mackensey Carter (Mission Viejo, Calif./Mission Viejo), who is tops on GU with four home runs and second in hits (38) and runs (16), is also the Hoyas' workhorse in the circle. She has eight wins and a 3.90 ERA in 28 appearances. Her 147.0 innings pitched are fourth in the conference.
Conners, who earned the victory over St. John's, leads the team with a 3.68 ERA and has eight complete games in 15 starts.
George Washington is 12-19-1 on the season and has lost nine of its last 10 games. Chelsea Lenhart (.315) and Katie Terrazas (.309) are the Colonials' top batters, while Autumn Taylor leads the squad with two home runs. Kara Clauss has eight wins and a 2.23 ERA, both tops on the team. Georgetown is 3-2 all-time against GW, winning the last three games by a combined four runs.
