Lehigh University Athletics
Thursday, May 11
12PM
Lehigh University
vs
Holy Cross
Mountain Hawks to host Patriot League Tournament beginning Thursday at Leadership Park
5/10/2017 5:10:00 PM | Softball
Lehigh PLT Notes | Watch on PLN | Live Stats | Tournament Central
Release: All-Patriot League and Major Awards | Release: Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-League
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Patriot League Tournament returns to Leadership Park for the third straight year this weekend as Lehigh seeks its second title in three seasons and ninth in the last 14. The Mountain Hawks have won a league-best 13 tournament crowns and are hosting the tournament for the sixth consecutive season.
Lehigh used a current 24-3 run to finish the regular season at 32-17 and at 16-2 claimed the league's regular season title by 1.5 games over Boston University. The Mountain Hawks had eight players named to All-Patriot League teams while senior Christine Campbell won the Pitcher of the Year award and Fran Troyan was named Coach of the Year for the seventh time. Lehigh will open the double-elimination tournament against No. 4 seed Holy Cross on Thursday. The rest of the field features No. 2 seed Boston University and No. 3 seed Army West Point.
Admission is free for all three days of tournament action at Leadership Park, which opened in April 2015. Lehigh University's Füd Truk will be on hand for the weekend to provide concessions. Patriot League prize packs and Füd Truk gift cards will be given away at Leadership Park to fans seen cheering and wearing their school's gear as well as fans who follow Lehigh sports on social media.
Lehigh placed a league-best eight student-athletes on the All-Patriot League teams and senior Christine Campbell won the league's Pitcher of the Year Award. Head coach Fran Troyan won his seventh Patriot League Coach of the Year award and his fourth in the last six years. First baseman Vicky Lattanzio became the 37th four-time All-Patriot League selection in league softball history and the 17th Lehigh student-athlete to accomplish the feat. Junior Carolyn Wright was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year for softball and joined senior Ashley Cole on the Academic All-Patriot League Team.
It's very difficult to enjoy postseason success without strong pitching and Lehigh will rely on a pair of hurlers who garnered postseason recognition from the league. Senior Christine Campbell was named Patriot League Pitcher of the Year, marking the 10th time in 13 seasons a Lehigh pitcher won the award; while sophomore Emily Sorem was named first team All-Patriot League. Campbell leads Lehigh with 18 victories and 99 strikeouts and won 13 straight decisions from March 25-May 7. Sorem rebounded from an 0-6 start to win 11 of her last 12 decisions and leads Lehigh in ERA. She was also 7-0 with an impressive 1.22 ERA in Patriot League play. Campbell threw a six-hit shutout against Bucknell in game one of last year's tournament also won a game against Central Arkansas in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Sorem pitched in two of Lehigh's three Patriot League Tournament games last season and went 0-1.
Playing extra-inning games has not bothered the Mountain Hawks over the last two seasons. After going 5-0 in extra-inning games last season, Lehigh is 4-0 in extra innings this season. Lehigh's longest game of the year was also its lone Patriot League game to require extra innings as freshman Reva Alderman's RBI double in the 11th inning gave the Mountain Hawks a 3-2 win over Bucknell on April 8. Alderman also had a walk-off RBI single in a win over UConn over spring break. Lehigh's other two extra-inning wins this season were a 5-4, eight-inning win at N.C. State on March 3 and a 3-1 nine-inning victory over Saint Joseph's on April 5, where Carolyn Wright hit the game-winning home run. Lehigh has won 11 straight extra-inning contests since dropping a 4-3 decision at Holy Cross on April 11, 2015.
Lehigh and Holy Cross will open the tournament in Thursday's first game. The Mountain Hawks swept three games from Holy Cross April 15-16 in Worcester, Mass. A seventh-inning two-run double by junior Carolyn Wright allowed Lehigh to rally for a 4-2 win in the series opener, before winning the final two games of the series by a combined score of 18-1. Wright was 6-for-8 in the series with three doubles and eight RBIs and went on to earn Patriot League Player of the Week honors.
Holy Cross is making its first Patriot League Tournament appearance since 2011. The Crusaders are 13-28 overall and finished 8-10 in the league, clinching the final spot in the tournament with a 5-0 win over Lafayette on the final day of the regular season after the Leopards claimed the first two games.
All-Patriot League selection Mandy McCarthy leads Holy Cross with a .365 batting average. Taylor Moss leads the Crusaders with 25 RBIs. Alexandra Held leads the Crusader pitching staff with a 9-10 record and 4.17 ERA.
Lehigh leads the all-time series against Holy Cross 84-19 and is 10-4 versus the Crusaders in the Patriot League Tournament. Lehigh has opened the Patriot League Tournament against Holy Cross on four previous occasions. The Mountain Hawks are 3-1 in those games with wins in 1999, 2000 and 2011, while the Crusaders upset the top-seed Mountain Hawks in 2002. Lehigh beat Holy Cross 6-4 in the 2011 opener, which marked the last time prior to this year that the Crusaders qualified for the Patriot League Tournament.
Thursday's other first round game matches No. 2 Boston University and No. 3 Army West Point. The defending tournament champion Terriers were 23-25 in the regular season and finished 14-3 in the league, while Army is 35-19 overall and finished league play at 8-10. BU swept three games from the Black Knights in Boston April 15-16 and has not lost to a league opponent since being swept by Lehigh on the opening weekend of league play.
Boston University has won the Patriot League Tournament in two of its first three seasons in the league, while Army's most recent title came in 2013. Holy Cross' lone league title was back in 1998. Lehigh won the 2015 title.
The Patriot League tournament gets underway Thursday when the Mountain Hawks will face Holy Cross in game one at 12:05 p.m., with Army West Point battling Boston University in game two at approximately 2:35 p.m.
Games three, four and five are slated for Friday, beginning at 11:05 a.m., with the winner's bracket game between the winners of Thursday's contests. The championship round featuring game six and, if necessary, game seven is set for noon on Saturday.
Streaming video of all Patriot League Tournament action will be available online for free via the Patriot League Network.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Thursday May 11:
Game 1: No. 1 Lehigh vs. No. 4 Holy Cross, 12:05 p.m.
Game 2: No. 2 Boston University vs. No. 3 Army West Point, 2:35 p.m.
Friday May 12:
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 11:05 a.m.
Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 1:35 p.m.
Game 5: Game 4 winner vs. Game 3 loser, 4:05 p.m.
Saturday May 13:
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 12:05 p.m.
Game 7: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 2:35 p.m.*
* - if necessary
Release: All-Patriot League and Major Awards | Release: Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-League
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Patriot League Tournament returns to Leadership Park for the third straight year this weekend as Lehigh seeks its second title in three seasons and ninth in the last 14. The Mountain Hawks have won a league-best 13 tournament crowns and are hosting the tournament for the sixth consecutive season.
Lehigh used a current 24-3 run to finish the regular season at 32-17 and at 16-2 claimed the league's regular season title by 1.5 games over Boston University. The Mountain Hawks had eight players named to All-Patriot League teams while senior Christine Campbell won the Pitcher of the Year award and Fran Troyan was named Coach of the Year for the seventh time. Lehigh will open the double-elimination tournament against No. 4 seed Holy Cross on Thursday. The rest of the field features No. 2 seed Boston University and No. 3 seed Army West Point.
Admission is free for all three days of tournament action at Leadership Park, which opened in April 2015. Lehigh University's Füd Truk will be on hand for the weekend to provide concessions. Patriot League prize packs and Füd Truk gift cards will be given away at Leadership Park to fans seen cheering and wearing their school's gear as well as fans who follow Lehigh sports on social media.
Lehigh placed a league-best eight student-athletes on the All-Patriot League teams and senior Christine Campbell won the league's Pitcher of the Year Award. Head coach Fran Troyan won his seventh Patriot League Coach of the Year award and his fourth in the last six years. First baseman Vicky Lattanzio became the 37th four-time All-Patriot League selection in league softball history and the 17th Lehigh student-athlete to accomplish the feat. Junior Carolyn Wright was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year for softball and joined senior Ashley Cole on the Academic All-Patriot League Team.
It's very difficult to enjoy postseason success without strong pitching and Lehigh will rely on a pair of hurlers who garnered postseason recognition from the league. Senior Christine Campbell was named Patriot League Pitcher of the Year, marking the 10th time in 13 seasons a Lehigh pitcher won the award; while sophomore Emily Sorem was named first team All-Patriot League. Campbell leads Lehigh with 18 victories and 99 strikeouts and won 13 straight decisions from March 25-May 7. Sorem rebounded from an 0-6 start to win 11 of her last 12 decisions and leads Lehigh in ERA. She was also 7-0 with an impressive 1.22 ERA in Patriot League play. Campbell threw a six-hit shutout against Bucknell in game one of last year's tournament also won a game against Central Arkansas in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Sorem pitched in two of Lehigh's three Patriot League Tournament games last season and went 0-1.
Playing extra-inning games has not bothered the Mountain Hawks over the last two seasons. After going 5-0 in extra-inning games last season, Lehigh is 4-0 in extra innings this season. Lehigh's longest game of the year was also its lone Patriot League game to require extra innings as freshman Reva Alderman's RBI double in the 11th inning gave the Mountain Hawks a 3-2 win over Bucknell on April 8. Alderman also had a walk-off RBI single in a win over UConn over spring break. Lehigh's other two extra-inning wins this season were a 5-4, eight-inning win at N.C. State on March 3 and a 3-1 nine-inning victory over Saint Joseph's on April 5, where Carolyn Wright hit the game-winning home run. Lehigh has won 11 straight extra-inning contests since dropping a 4-3 decision at Holy Cross on April 11, 2015.
Lehigh and Holy Cross will open the tournament in Thursday's first game. The Mountain Hawks swept three games from Holy Cross April 15-16 in Worcester, Mass. A seventh-inning two-run double by junior Carolyn Wright allowed Lehigh to rally for a 4-2 win in the series opener, before winning the final two games of the series by a combined score of 18-1. Wright was 6-for-8 in the series with three doubles and eight RBIs and went on to earn Patriot League Player of the Week honors.
Holy Cross is making its first Patriot League Tournament appearance since 2011. The Crusaders are 13-28 overall and finished 8-10 in the league, clinching the final spot in the tournament with a 5-0 win over Lafayette on the final day of the regular season after the Leopards claimed the first two games.
All-Patriot League selection Mandy McCarthy leads Holy Cross with a .365 batting average. Taylor Moss leads the Crusaders with 25 RBIs. Alexandra Held leads the Crusader pitching staff with a 9-10 record and 4.17 ERA.
Lehigh leads the all-time series against Holy Cross 84-19 and is 10-4 versus the Crusaders in the Patriot League Tournament. Lehigh has opened the Patriot League Tournament against Holy Cross on four previous occasions. The Mountain Hawks are 3-1 in those games with wins in 1999, 2000 and 2011, while the Crusaders upset the top-seed Mountain Hawks in 2002. Lehigh beat Holy Cross 6-4 in the 2011 opener, which marked the last time prior to this year that the Crusaders qualified for the Patriot League Tournament.
Thursday's other first round game matches No. 2 Boston University and No. 3 Army West Point. The defending tournament champion Terriers were 23-25 in the regular season and finished 14-3 in the league, while Army is 35-19 overall and finished league play at 8-10. BU swept three games from the Black Knights in Boston April 15-16 and has not lost to a league opponent since being swept by Lehigh on the opening weekend of league play.
Boston University has won the Patriot League Tournament in two of its first three seasons in the league, while Army's most recent title came in 2013. Holy Cross' lone league title was back in 1998. Lehigh won the 2015 title.
The Patriot League tournament gets underway Thursday when the Mountain Hawks will face Holy Cross in game one at 12:05 p.m., with Army West Point battling Boston University in game two at approximately 2:35 p.m.
Games three, four and five are slated for Friday, beginning at 11:05 a.m., with the winner's bracket game between the winners of Thursday's contests. The championship round featuring game six and, if necessary, game seven is set for noon on Saturday.
Streaming video of all Patriot League Tournament action will be available online for free via the Patriot League Network.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Thursday May 11:
Game 1: No. 1 Lehigh vs. No. 4 Holy Cross, 12:05 p.m.
Game 2: No. 2 Boston University vs. No. 3 Army West Point, 2:35 p.m.
Friday May 12:
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 11:05 a.m.
Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 1:35 p.m.
Game 5: Game 4 winner vs. Game 3 loser, 4:05 p.m.
Saturday May 13:
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 12:05 p.m.
Game 7: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 2:35 p.m.*
* - if necessary
Players Mentioned
IF/OF
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
UT
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
C
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