Saturday, March 11
Madeira Beach, Fla.
9:00 AM

Lehigh University

vs

South Alabama

Infield Huddle GS 23
Photo by: Jason Homan

Lehigh Kicks Off Spring Break Trip at The Spring Games in Florida

3/10/2023 9:36:00 AM | Softball

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh softball team is headed to Florida over spring break to play in two events beginning this weekend with seven games over five days at The Spring Games in Madeira Beach, Fla. Lehigh will play two games against Iona and Princeton and single games against South Alabama, Iowa and Chattanooga, beginning Saturday when the Mountain Hawks face South Alabama at 9 a.m. and Iowa at 2 p.m.
 
The Mountain Hawks enter spring break having won six straight games to improve to 10-2 on the season. Lehigh went 5-0 last weekend at Campbell's Camel Invitational with victories over Furman, Campbell, Canisius (twice) and North Carolina Central.
 
First-year Lily Owens was recognized as the Patriot League's Rookie of the Week after batting .467 over five games last week with six runs scored, two home runs and four RBIs. She is hitting .325 on the season and has scored 12 runs, while tying for the team lead with eight stolen bases.
 
Senior Josie Charles leads the Mountain Hawks with a .410 batting average. Charles has hit safely in 10 of Lehigh's 12 games and was 8-for-18 last weekend with four RBIs.
 
Senior Emily Cimino has supplied the pop for Lehigh offensively with six doubles, two home runs and 18 RBIs to go along with a .333 average. Junior catcher Amanda Greaney is batting .375 and belted a grand slam in Lehigh's 9-1 victory over Canisius last Sunday.
 
The Mountain Hawks have received strong pitching from their staff as juniors Katelyn Young and Ansley Dambach, sophomore Maria Urban and first-year Chloe Hess have pitched to a 1.40 team ERA. Young owns five victories and has struck out 38 batters in 44 innings. Hess is 4-1 with a 0.68 ERA.
 
After battling a pair of conference champions (Campbell and Canisius) last weekend, Lehigh will face two more 2022 conference champs at The Spring Games, Princeton and Chattanooga.
 
Lehigh's first opponent of the weekend, South Alabama is 13-7 on the season. The Jaguars went 4-1 at Auburn's Jane B. Moore Memorial Tournament last week including a 1-1 split with the host Tigers. Sasha Willems leads the USA offense with a .346 average, three home runs and 16 RBIs. Jenna Hardy and Olivia Lackie are the top pitchers.
 
South Alabama claimed the only previous meeting with Lehigh 15-9 in 2014.
 
Iowa heads to Florida with an 11-8 record. The Hawkeyes went 3-2 at the Adam Brown Memorial Shamrock Classic in Conway, Ark. Nia Carter is hitting .471 while Denali Loecker has five home runs and 24 RBIs to lead Iowa. Breanna Vasquez leads Iowa's pitching staff in wins (five) and strikeouts (46).
 
Saturday's game will mark the first-ever meeting between Lehigh and Iowa in softball.
 
On Sunday, Lehigh will face Iona at 9 a.m., followed by an 11:30 a.m. meeting with Princeton.
 
Iona is 2-7 following an 0-4 showing at the Liberty Invitational last weekend. Jessica Chilcott (.364-0-5) and Jamie Sheeran (.346-3-8) have paced the Gaels offensively, while Iona owns a 6.49 team ERA. Samantha Rieb has thrown the most innings (17.1) and has the lowest ERA (4.04).
 
Lehigh has won 11 of the 12 meetings with Iona, including an 8-2 victory in the last meeting in 2016.
 
Princeton, the defending Ivy League champion led by Lehigh Hall of Famer Lisa (Sweeney) Van Ackeren '09, is a regular non-league opponent of the Mountain Hawks, with two meetings in Florida to be followed by an April 5 game in New Jersey. The Tigers are just 3-7 on the season but have faced tough competition. Last weekend Princeton was at Texas' Longhorn Invitational, where the Tigers went 1-4 and were competitive in losses against No. 11 Texas and No. 24 Louisiana. Allison Ha is batting .462 with five RBIs in eight games for Princeton. Alexis Laudenslager has thrown the most innings in the circle for the Tigers.
 
Princeton leads the all-time series 31-23-1. Last year the Tigers earned a win at Leadership Park while game two of the doubleheader ended in a tie.
 
Following a day off on Monday, Lehigh will face Iona again Tuesday at 9 a.m. On Wednesday, the Mountain Hawks will close out The Spring Games when they face Chattanooga at 12:30 p.m. followed by a rematch with Princeton at 3 p.m.
 
Chattanooga is 9-5 on the season and went 4-1 last weekend at Gardner-Webb's Tournament in North Carolina. Olivia Lipari, Emily Coltharp and Acelynn Sellers are all batting over .300 for the Mocs, while Taylor Long leads the pitchers with a 3-0 record and 1.30 ERA. The Mocs are the defending Southern Conference Tournament champions.
 
Wednesday's game will mark the first meeting between Lehigh and Chattanooga.
 
All action at The Spring Games will be streamed on FloSoftball.
 
Following The Spring Games, Lehigh will head to Tampa for five games at the South Florida Showdown, hosted by USF March 17-19. The Mountain Hawks will have a rematch with Iowa and will face host USF, featuring pitcher Gabriella Nori '22 on March 17. Lehigh will then face Marist and 2022 NCAA runner-up Texas on March 18 before wrapping up the spring break trip with a March 19 single game against Marist.
 
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