Softball To Face Ranked Opponents, Honor Seniors

Games #45 & 46
ART U Urban Knights (16-28, 13-13 PWC) vs. #21 California Baptist Lancers (39-11, 23-5 PWC)
Friday, April 25, 2014 at 12:00 PM
Brisbane, CA – Mission Blue Field
and
crush a three-run homer. The Lancers hold a 5-1 advantage all-time.

RIDERS ON THE STORM
Atop the PacWest standings for much of the year and now ranked #15 in the country by the NFCA, Dixie State is sharing the #1 spot in conference with California Baptist as of Apr. 24. One would need to look back to Mar. 17 to find the Red Storm's last loss (a 7-6 edging by Sonoma State) as they have won 17 consecutive games since. Only splits with CBU, Azusa, and NDNU account for DSU's five PacWest losses and few staffs have been able to contain the .377 team batting average that ranks #1 in all of NCAA Division II. There are four members of the Red Storm lineup who rank in the conference's top 10 in batting average, including Bailee Freeland (.434 AVG, 28 R, 20 RBI), Courtney Sherwin (.417 AVG, 12 2B, 6 HR, 36 RBI, 46 R), Nicole Chavez (.417 AVG, 10 HR, 6 3B, 15 2B, 32 RBI, 55 R), and Courtney Hine (.415 AVG, 9 2B, 31 RBI, 39 R). Defensively, the team has Aryn Feickert (19-6, 1.76 ERA, 135.1 IP, 117 K) and Michelle Duncan (13-1, 1.32 ERA, 69.0 IP, 44 K) to thank for the lowest ERA in the PacWest (2.12). A series sweep of ART U by the Red Storm in Utah last season gave them a 15-4 all-time record against the Knights.

SEASON-ENDING DOMINICAN DUEL
Winners of six of their last eight games, the Penguins are scheduled to face NDNU and Dixie State prior to heading to Mission Blue Field for ART U's season finale. Academy of Art split with Dominican most recently as the Penguins won 4-0 before the Knights took game two 4-2 behind a strong start from Jill Johnson (7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R). With the exception of UH Hilo, California Baptist, and Dixie State (yet to be determined), Dominican has taken at least one game from each of its PacWest opponents. At the Tournament of Champions in early April, the Penguins reached the Gold Bracket where they fell to Humboldt State despite beating the nationally-ranked Jacks earlier in the year. The team is led offensively by Catelyn Cavender (.351 AVG, 12 RBI), Tori Johnson (.343 AVG, 18 RBI, 26 R) and Kayleigh Klingberg (.340 AVG, 3 HR, 21 RBI). Ashlyn Moriarity has handled the bulk of the work for Dominican thus far, throwing 145.0 innings with 65 strikeouts en route to her 14-10 record. The Urban Knights are 18-2 all-time against the Penguins after taking three of four last year.

KNIGHTS WALK OFF ON DICKENSON HOMER, SWEEP ARGOS
Facing Notre Dame de Namur for the second time in four days, Academy of Art University used the momentum of a Dickenson two-run walk off homer in game one to then score early and often in the second contest and ultimately finished off the day's sweep. Battling back from a 5-0 deficit, the Urban Knights were in an 8-8 ballgame late before Dickenson played the heroine in the bottom of the seventh for a 10-8 win and, in game two, rallies through the first three innings (five in the second) pushed ART U to its 9-1 victory via mercy rule.