Games #36 & 37
ART U Urban Knights (14-21) vs. Holy Names Hawks (17-14)
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 12:00 & 2:00 PM
Brisbane, CA – Mission Blue Field
Live Stats
Twitter Updates

Games #38 & 39
ART U Urban Knights (14-21, 10-10 PWC) vs. NDNU Argonauts (15-20, 4-10 PWC)
Saturday, April 7, 2012 at 12:00 & 2:00 PM
Belmont, CA – Notre Dame High School
Twitter Updates

ACADEMY OF ART STAYS LOCAL FOR REMAINDER OF 2012
Now a little over a week after returning from the most successful Hawaii roadtrip in the ART U Softball history, the Urban Knights are well rested for a four-game week in which they will take on Holy Names and Notre Dame de Namur. Academy of Art, who went 7-5 on the islands, takes momentum into this week after winning five of their last six contests.

FIRST PITCH
ART U begins the week at Mission Blue Field with a Wednesday, Apr. 4 doubleheader against Holy Names. The Knights then travel to Notre Dame High School in Belmont, CA to face NDNU for a doubleheader to resume PacWest play. Both days feature 12:00 PM first pitches. Various forms of live coverage will be available including Live Stats and Twitter updates (see above). Remember to check @UrbanKnightNews on Twitter for score updates and recaps. Also become a fan of the Knights on Facebook by 'Like'-ing the Urban Knights page.

KNIGHT WATCH
Academy of Art broke out offensively in Hawaii, reaching double digit hits in five of their last seven games on the islands. Sophomore outfielder Elyse Cordova sits atop the team's batting average leaders (.426) and ranks 2nd in the entire PacWest in that category. She swiped three bases in Hawaii (all in the same game on Mar. 19 vs. HPU) to give her 11 for the year (2nd in PacWest) on an ART U squad which leads the conference in steals (52). Senior outfielder Ashley Lokey, who closed out the roadtrip with three consecutive multi-hit games, continues to pace the team with 29 runs scored (3rd in PacWest), a .675 slugging percentage (5th in PacWest), a .474 on-base percentage (4th in PacWest), four triples (2nd in PacWest), 17 walks (5th in PacWest), and 11 stolen bases (2nd in PacWest). She adds six home runs and 25 RBIs which are both second on the team behind senior infielder Genna Allen's seven home runs (leads PacWest) and 29 RBIs (6th in PacWest). The batting averages of sophomore infielder Lauren Stover and freshman infielder Taylor Thurman both rose tremendously in Hawaii as Stover offered her second 10-game hit streak of the season and Thurman had four multi-hit games in her last six starts.

Anchoring the ART U pitching staff, junior starting pitcher Kimberly Dauer (9-8) earned a PacWest Pitcher of the Week honor for her work on the islands. The Los Osos, CA native posted a sub-1.00 ERA during the second half of the trip, tossing three complete games and striking out 27 batters in 29.0 innings at one point. She would throw a program record 10.0 innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts in her start against Chaminade on Mar. 21 and now ranks 6th in the PacWest in wins (9), 6th in strikeouts (62), 6th in innings pitched (113.1), 5th in complete games (12), and 10th in ERA (3.09). Freshman Haily MacDonald (4-5) posted the first two complete game shutouts of her Urban Knight career in Hawaii with the first coming as a two-hitter against Hawaii Hilo (Mar. 16) and the second in the trip's finale versus BYU-Hawaii on Mar. 24.

HAULTING HOLY NAMES
The Hawks started their 2012 season by competing in a pair of tournaments, the Simpson University Tourney and the Ringor So Cal Smash Tourney. Despite getting their first victory of the year (2-1 over University of British Colombia-Okanaga on Feb. 11), HNU would finish that tournament 2-4 and then sustain three losses in four games at Ringor including a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Cal Baptist. March was a bounce back month, however, as the Hawks went on a nine-game win streak, sweeping Hope International and Purdue University-North Central in the Tucson Invitational Games (Mar. 1-3). Their record would even out in the start of Cal Pac play and rain has been a spoiler lately, but HNU comes into Wednesday's game having defeated Simpson 6-4 most recently. Allison Snider leads the team with 18 RBIs and nine doubles while Rachel Martinez owns the highest batting average (.440). Defensively, Stephani Fairclough (6-1) has thrown the most innings for Holy Names (54.0) and has a 0.78 ERA with 41 strikeouts.

ATTACKING THE ARGOS
As one of four teams in the PacWest with fewer than 10 conference wins, Notre Dame de Namur had a strong first half of its 2012 season, but has had difficulty winning since mid March. The Argos started by winning 10 of their first 14 games which saw them go 3-2 in the MSUB Desert Stinger and 3-1 in the Grand Canyon Tournament after which they won four consecutive games with a 4-3 victory over Cal State Stanislaus, a sweep of Menlo, and a 3-2 triumph over Sonoma State. NDNU would start off its Hawaii trip strong, going 2-1 early and taking a pair from BYU-Hawaii, but a string of four losses would follow as the Argonauts fell to Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific. NDNU ended up going 3-6 in HI then 1-3 in a series with Cal Baptist before enduring a 1-5 Tournament of Champions. Offensively, Janae Reyes leads the way with a .400 batting average (5th in PacWest) and is tied for the conference lead with 15 doubles to go with 13 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. The Argos' top pitcher is Sammy McConvey (7-9) who owns a 1.89 ERA to go with 60 strikeouts in a 118.2 innings pitched which ranks 5th in the PacWest. The Argos will be in action against Humboldt State on Wednesday prior to facing Academy of Art on Saturday.

ART U GOES 7-5 IN HAWAII, FINISHES TRIP STRONG
Academy of Art completed both its longest and winningest Hawaii roadtrip against four different PacWest opponents. The 12-game journey started off strong with a sweep of Hawaii-Hilo (5-1, 1-0), owners of the best record in the conference at the time, where Dauer, MacDonald, and the ART U defense combined to allow just seven hits and one run through the entire doubleheader. Rainy weather conditions played havoc with the Knights' next series against Hawaii Pacific which saw the Sea Warriors win the delayed opener 7-4 as well as a rain-shortened game two 9-3. Action on the second day of the series was moved to Kailua High School where HPU won 6-0 and was leading 13-1 in the finale before an ART U nine-run comeback which spanned three innings and was eventually stopped by darkness when the game was called with Hawaii Pacific in front 13-10.

The Urban Knights would bounce back, however, sweeping Chaminade (Mar. 21) with Dauer's first shutout of the season in an 8-0 game one and an 8-5 victory in the second contest thanks to a three-run Academy of Art rally in the sixth. A hard-fought, 10-inning affair came next as ART U opened a four-game set with BYU-Hawaii (Mar. 23), but the Knights would prevail 4-3 in that one after Allen blasted a two-run homer in the 10th. The Seasiders responded by winning game two 8-7 despite a five-run comeback by ART U in the seventh. However, Academy of Art would continue its winning ways with a 10-2 six-inning mercy victory and a 3-0 shutout win following two more strong starts from the Knights' pitching staff.

LOOKING AHEAD
Now in the Bay Area for the remainder of the season, Academy of Art next plays Dominican on Apr. 14 before finishing the year with a four-part homestand.

Get an early jump on the FAN BUS signups for ART U's Swing for a Cause game coming up on Sunday, Apr. 15. Click the following link and select Softball: