Games #18 & 19
ART U Urban Knights (7-10, 5-3 PWC) vs. Dominican Penguins (4-10, 0-2 PWC)
Saturday, March 3, 2013 at 12:00 PM
Brisbane, CA – Mission Blue Field
Live Stats

ACADEMY OF ART RETURNS TO BAY AREA FOR TWO WEEKS
ART U made a big statement in Southern California this past weekend, sweeping Azusa Pacific then earning a victory over defending Pacific West Conference Champion California Baptist. Academy of Art, now owner of the most conference victories in the PacWest, will be in action this Saturday for its home doubleheader versus Dominican, a team whom the Urban Knights have defeated in each of their 14 meetings to date.

FIRST PITCH
Returning to Mission Blue Field to play host to Dominican on Saturday, Mar. 2, Academy of Art will start its doubleheader at 12:00 PM. Live Stats and Twitter updates will be available for these games. Remember to follow @ARTU_Knights on Twitter and "Like" the Urban Knights on Facebook for score updates, videos, and recaps.

KNIGHT WATCH
Junior Lauren Stover and sophomore Haily MacDonald have been on a tear of late at the plate. Stover carries a .431 batting average as well as a nine-game hitting streak into this weekend's doubleheader. She comes off a memorable weekend down south where she hit her first home run of the year, a three-run blast, and has now delivered 10 RBIs, 12 runs scored, and four doubles to lead the squad. MacDonald comes off a 4-for-4 performance in the 10-7 win over California Baptist to bring her batting average up to a .414 clip. She has scored the most runs of any Urban Knight (16) and also had two triples in her team's previous homestand. Like Stover, junior Andrea Hanchey went deep for her first home of the year, a grand slam, against the Lancers and now ranks second on the team with eight RBIs.

Senior Kimberly Dauer (3-6) is currently ranked fourth in the conference in strikeouts (37) and has moved up to fourth in innings pitched (38.0). Among the team's regular starters, she sports the lowest ERA (2.39) through six starts. Quickly becoming a fixture in the ART U rotation, MacDonald (2-0) won both of her starts last weekend and sports a 3.82 ERA in 22.0 innings thus far in 2013. Sophomore Kristin Valdivia (2-1) has regularly provided important relief innings (25.0), taking a 2.24 ERA and 12 strikeouts to the top of the pitching list.

PENGUIN PREVIEW
Starting the season at the Mizuno Best of the West Invitational hosted by Cal State Stanislaus, Dominican came out of the initial four-game stretch at 2-2. The Penguins knocked off #17 Cal State Monterey Bay 5-4 as well as SF State 3-0. However, after the tournament, a 2-4 stretch followed which included a sweep by Cal State Stanislaus and a split with Cal State East Bay. Most recently, Dominican challenged two more ranked teams including #13 Dixie State and #18 Sonoma State, but on both occasions the Penguins were swept. Offensively, Dominican is led by Leslie Mesa's .385 batting average while it is Kaylei Klingberg who offers team-highs in home runs (3), RBIs (12), and runs scored (9). With relatively equal starts, Karly Harris (3-5, 4.14 ERA) and Ashlyn Moriarity (1-5, 4.41 ERA) have thrown all of the Penguins' 90.1 innings thus far. Saturday will be the 15th and 16th meetings of ART U and Dominican with the Knights holding a commanding 14-0 all-time lead.

KNIGHTS GO 3-1 ON SOCAL SWING
Taking its show on the road through doubleheaders with Azusa Pacific and California Baptist in Southern California last week, Academy of Art came away with a 3-1 result to further bolster its place in the PacWest standings.

In its second sweep of a conference opponent in three chances to start 2013, ART U first took down APU with a 3-2 in nine innings on another double steal with senior Julie Martin swiping home plate. Dauer provided a masterful 9.0-inning performance which at one point saw her retire 16 Cougars in a row for the victory. Game two had the Knights go up 4-0 after a three-run second and, thanks to MacDonald's strong first start of the year, Academy of Art held on for the 4-3 victory.

Quickly bouncing back from a 10-1 defeat to start its pair with reigning PacWest Champion California Baptist, ART U used a three-run homer by Stover in the second to go up 6-1, then Hanchey powered a grand slam in the sixth for what would essentially become ART U's victory margin, 10-7.

LOOKING AHEAD
Staying local for another week after Saturday, the Urban Knights head across the bay for their first meeting with Holy Names on Mar. 9 before a four-game series at Dixie State the following week.