MOUNT ST. MARY'S (11-27) at GEORGE MASON (19-18)
Wednesday, April 19, 2016, 3 pm (DH)
Fairfax, Va. * George Mason Softball Complex
MOUNT UPDATE: The Mount dropped three of four games last weekend to fall to 11-27 overall and 3-5 in the Northeast Conference. Marian Ruf tossed a two-hit shutout to lead the Mount to a 3-0 win over Bryant in the second game of the doubleheader. Shea McFarland and Marisa Mayes each had two hits for the Mount in the win. Bryat took the opening game, 5-1. On Saturday, the Mount dropped a pair of games at Central Connecticut State.
ABOUT GEORGE MASON: George Mason won two of three games against Saint Joseph's over the weekend to improve to 19-18 overall and 6-7 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Casey Price leads the team with a .342 average while adding 12 doubles and 22 RBI. Julia Czarnecki is hitting .337 with a team-best 22 runs scored. In the circle, Marina Vitalich is 11-7 with a 1.73 ERA in 109 innings pitched. She has struck out 122 batters while walking just 18 on the year.
THE ALL-TIME SERIES: The Mountaineers are 15-32 all-time against George Mason since moving to NCAA Division I in 1988-89. The teams split a twinbill at the Mount last season. That was the first meeting between the two schools since 2011. Mount St. Mary's is 9-18 all-time on the road against the Patriots.
LAST YEAR'S MEETING: Megan Baker's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth inning lifted the Mount to a 5-4 come-from-behind win the opening game of the doubleheader at Our Lady of the Meadows Field. The Patriots responded with an 8-2 win in the second game. Morgan Alisauckas, Niki Gonzalez and Rachel Teti registered two RBIs apiece to pace the Mount offense in the twinbill, while Brooke Blankenship hit home runs in both games for the Patriots. FULL RECAP.
POWER BAT: Rachel Heinze leads the Mount with 16 home runs this season. The 16 homers tie the Northeast Conference single-season record set by Wagner's Andrea Lazzari in 2009. Heinze is tied for seventh in all of NCAA Division I with 16 homers, and is sixth with 0.42 home runs per game. Heinze leads the NEC in home runs (16), slugging percentage (.848) and total bases (95) while she is fourth in runs scored (32), RBI (33) and seventh in on-base percentage (.427).
MAYES HAVING BANNER SENIOR SEASON: Senior Marisa Mayes leads the team and is third in the Northeast Conference with a .370 average. The second baseman is hitting .423 in eight NEC games, and she is hitting .417 over the past 24 contests. Mayes is fourth in the NEC in on-base percentage (.432) and sixth in slugging percentage (.500).
BUCKEL CATCHING ON: Holly Buckel is hitting .344 with six home runs, 21 RBI and 10 stolen bases this season. The senior catcher is hitting .413 over the Mount past 15 games with four homers and 11 RBI over that span. Buckel is seventh in the Northeast Conference in hitting (.344), tied for fifth in home runs (six) and second in stolen bases (10). She had her 10-game hit streak in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader at Central Connecticut.
McFARLAND REACHING BASE: Shea McFarland had her streak of 15 consecutive games reaching base snapped in the opening game at Bryant. McFarland bounced back by going 2-for-2 at the plate in the Mount's 3-0 win in game two of the twinbill. She is hitting .333 over the past 16 games with a .404 on-base percentage.
RUF THROWS TWO-HITTER: Marian Ruf tossed a two-hit shutout in the Mount's 3-0 win over Bryant on Sunday. The sophomore right-hander is 4-3 with a 2.86 ERA over her past eight appearances. For the season, Ruf is no 5-9 with a 6.73 ERA in 69.2 innings of work.
UP NEXT: The Mount hosts LIU Brooklyn on Saturday, April 23, for a 1:00 p.m. Northeast Conference doubleheader. The Mountaineers then head to Saint Francis U for an NEC twinbill on Sunday, April 24.
