Page 10 Lady Lions drop struggle to hold No. by Ray Immekus staff writer The Behrend softball team went 0-4 last week, dropping to 5 - 19 overall and 5-3 in the Allegh eny Mountain Collegiate Conference. The cur rent four-game skid by the Lady Lions follows a three-game winning streak that catapulted Behrend to first place in the AMCC. The Lady Lions still hold a game lead over Pitt-Bradford and Penn State Altoona in the conference. On Wednesday, Behrend traveled to Westminster for a double-header against the Ti tans. The Lions lost a close one to Westminster in The Lady Lions will have to hustle to stay in the No. 1 spot for the AMCC tournament. 1 II I I I I I II II I I Goes undefeated in conference, looks ahead to conference tournament by Amy Frizzell sports editor After defeating conference foes Frostburg State and Pitt-Greensburg, the men's tennis team finished out its regular season conference play with a per fect 6-0 record. The Lions also defeated non-con ference Fredonia State, 8-1. The Lions hosted Fredonia on Wednesday in the Blue Devils' first match of their season. "It was a good win," said coach Jeff Barger. "Since they aren't in our conference it gave the guys a chance to relax and just play a good match before the AMCCs.- The blue and white traveled to Pitt-Greensburg on Friday. This would he the last time the two teams would meet before the AMCC Championships. The Lions came away with a 9-0 win. First doubles team junior Ryan Deimel and sophomore John Marini took the win with a 8-0 victory. Sophomore Jon Barber and freshman Brian Espin followed with a 8-3 win, while sophomore Kevin Fiorenzo and senior Jeremiah Gutherie took the win at third doubles, 8-0 to sweep doubles play. Deimel had a 6-0, 6-0 win at first singles, Marini tallied up a 6-2, 6-2 win at second. At third Barber took a 6-1, 6-0 win, while Espin backed him up with a 6-3, 6-3 win at fourth. Fiorenzo and fresh man Matt Meyer both had 6-0, 6-0 wins at fifth and sixth singles. "Fortunately we all played well and we got the win," said Barber of the team's second meeting with the Bobcats. On Saturday the Lions clinched the regular sea son crown and its perfect conference record when it defeated Frostburg for the second time. "The Pitt-Greensburg match helped our confi dence going into the Frostburg match," said Bar ber. The blue and white once again swept doubles. Deimel and Marini won 8-6 in a tiebreaker when their score reached 8-8, coming away with a 9-8 win. Barber and Espin won 8-6 as Meyer and fresh man Garrett Grenek took the last win at 9-7. After playing one game, Frostburg's first singles player forfeited to Deimel. Barber took the win at 'I "NNI/Nti Housing & rit. Food Service MPF Athlete of the Week SPORTS game one, falling 5- 4. "We just need to stay focused and keep in mind what we need to accom plish," said sopho more Kim Raff. "Maybe we could of pulled that out if we did stay focused." In game two, the Titans shut out Behrend 8-0. "We just mentally weren't there. That has been a problem that has plagued us," said senior Brandy Polinick. The following day, the Panthers of Pitt-Bradford hosted the Lady Lions for two games. Behrend was handed its second shut out in as many games with a 3-0 loss to Bradford in game one, and lost their fourth straight in game two by a score of 6-5. "They were hitting real well and because they were hitting that kind of broke us down and they came back to win the game," said Raff. "The defense was good but we didn't play well in the rain," said sophomore Lindsey Stankus. "The rain brought us down because we were mak ing a lot of errors. Those games it was hard to find anything positive." The two nonconference losses dropped the women's record to 5-17 but did not affect the team's conference standings. It remains in first third 6-0, 6-4. Fiorenzo provided a win at fifth 6-3, 6-2. Meyer rounded out singles play, winning 6-3, 6-2. The Li ons walked away with a 7-2 win. "They played well. After the last time they played I wanted to see a better score this time and I did," said Barger, refer ring to the team's 5-4 win over Frostburg in the two team's first meeting. "We're pretty pleased. This is the first time Behrend has ever gone undefeated in the conference," said Barber of the team's enthusiasm. Next up for the team will be the AMCC Championships that will be held at Behrend this year. After last year's third place finish the team is looking to take the crown back since its last cham pionship win in 1998, the first year the tournament was held. "Right now our only concern is Frostburg," said Barber. "We feel they will be our toughest opponent on Satur day." Frostburg finished just above the Li ons in last year's playoffs, while Altoona walked away with the crown for the sec ond year in a row. This year the Lions are focusing their attention to Frostburg. "The guys had a pretty easy time with Altoona this year," said Barger. "They're pretty confident in their abili ties over Altoona, so they are really fo cusing on Frostburg who possess our only real threat." Behrend will go into the tournament holding down five No. 1 seeds while Frostburg has the other four. "Having a No. 1 seed will basically guarantee an easy first round for us," said Espin "Which will be nice." Barber, Fiorenzo and Meyer all have first seeds in their singles flights as doubles teams Espin and Barber, and Meyer and Grenek also have one. The men haven't done much to change their game plan before AMCCs. Chris McCartney Friday, April 16, 2004 four 1 spot record, which has put them in the No. 1 spot. The team is looking to maintain its position as it fights for the AMCC championship crown. team _irence , a per fect record of 6-0. It will next play In the AMCC tour nament on Saturday. games, n AMCC place in the conference, but is losing ground with every loss. The Lady Lions will play eight games in the next six days, four of which are against confer- ence foes Today the Lions will travel to Frostburg for a Saturday conference matchup. Frostburg is 3-1 in the division and 16-9 overall. The blue and white will have off on Sunday and Monday, and then they will travel to La Roche for two games on the 20th. La Roche is 2-0 in the conference with a 2-8 overall record. The Lady Lions will finish off their season with the AMCC tournament, which will be held on May 1 -2. "Even though our consistency hasn't been lack ing that much we're still working on it," said Bar ber. "Overall we're just going to go in with the same confidence we've had all year." "They've been able play well using their confi dence," said Barger. "If it's not broken then don't fix it." Sport: Baseball Class: Sophomore For on, McCartney leads Date: April 12, 2004 th in ERA at 1.78. He 3-1 record and 20 McCartney was one y trik , w ve aided the players in game one o s' ion in b 4-4 in the doubleheader against F o u conference. Monday. nd white is . McCartney pitched for fiv day against Thiel at nings and gave up two hit day they will pla runs and had six strikeouts at home against Pitt-Greensburg. Lions' 11-3 rout of Fredonia. Kevin Fiorenzo & Amy Frizzell The Behrend Beacon Baseball team rises to .500 in AMCC play by Kevin Fiorenzo The baseball team swept a doubleheader this past weekend against Lake Erie and split one with Fredonia on Monday. This past Monday, the Lions traveled to Fredonia for a doubleheader with their non-con ference foe. In the opening game, the Lions routed Fredonia by an 11-3 final score. Behrend got six runs in the first three innings, four of them coming in the third. The Lions tacked on five more runs in the game to come away with the easy win. Sophomore Eddie George, freshman Brian Hart and senior Mitch Reckner all hit doubles in the game. Reckner also hit a home run, along with sophomore Shane Elzer. Getting the win for Behrend was sophomore Chris McCartney. He went for five innings and gave up two hits, no runs and had six strikeouts. McCartney was also named this week's Housing and Food Service Athlete of the Week. In the second game, the two teams engaged in a much tighter contest, this time with Fredonia prevailing 2-1. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Fredonia scored one more run to pull out the win. The Lions had no extra base hits but had a sto len base from junior Vinnie Canzano. Behrend's loss went to senior Jason Shaffer. He pitched 6.1 innings and gave up four hits and two hits and had seven strikeouts. Pitcher Bran don Miller got the win for Fredonia. On the previous Saturday, the Lions hosted a doubleheader against AMCC opponent Lake Erie. Behrend was able to sweep both games, 5- 2 and 9-7. In the first game, the two teams played a tight first three innings. In the final innings, though. both teams managed to get runs. Behrend ended up pulling out the win by a 5-2 final score. The highlight of the game was a home run by a senior Tony Azzato.The win went to Hart, who pitched a complete game, giving up four hits, two runs and had 10 strikeouts. In the second game, the two teams engaged in a shootout. After three innings, Behrend was ahead 5-4. The two teams were tied,7-7, though, after five innings. The Lions scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to pull out the win. Azzato, Elzer and Hart all had triples in the game while Canzano hit a triple. The winning pitcher for Behrend was sopho more Ray DeVaul. He pitched for 2 1/3 innings and gave up one hit, no runs and had two strikeouts. With their three wins in the past week the Li ons improved to 13-9-1 overall, 4-4 in the AMCC. Their conference record currently places them in fourth place. The Behrend squad will resume play today at home against Thiel. On Saturday, it will host a doubleheader against conference opponent Pitt- Greensburg, who currently occupies the AMCC cellar. sports editor
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