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Millersville

Gabby D'Ottavio

Softball looks to continue its winning ways against No. 13 East Stroudsburg and Lock Haven

| By: Wes Champlin, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

COVERAGE LINKS

vs. East Stroudsburg:

Game One: 

Game Two:

 

vs. Lock Haven:

Game One: 

Game Two:

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Record: 12-9, 3-1 PSAC

ABOUT THE GAMES

  • The Millersville softball team hosts the No. 13 East Stroudsburg Warriors on March 26 before welcoming the Lock Haven Bald Eagles to Seaber Softball Stadium on March 29. The Marauders face a tall task in upsetting the Warriors, who moved up to thirteenth in the most recent NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll and sport a 22-6 record on the season. Three days later, Lock Haven comes to town on the front half of a back-to-back, as the Marauders travel to Shippensburg the very next day. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

  • After an up and down couple of weeks, the Marauders came out strong against Mansfield on March 22. They shut out the Mountaineers in both games en route to a doubleheader sweep. The two victories place Millersville in a tie with West Chester for the top spot in the conference at this early juncture.
  • Alex Schaefer was a massive part of Millersville's excellence on Friday afternoon. She tossed a complete game shutout in game one while striking out a single game program record 17 batters. That broke the previous record of 15 set multiple times in 2002 and was one short of the PSAC's all-time mark of 18. The senior has had a bit of a rollercoaster ride of a season thus far; she's recorded three complete game shutouts but allowed five or more runs three times as well. Schaefer ranks fifth in the conference in strikeouts with 77.
  • Catcher Aleese Angelo has been the best offensive player in the league so far this season and showed no signs of slowing down last week. The senior backstop leads the PSAC in batting average (.540), on base percentage (.608), OPS (1.656), slugging percentage (1.048), home runs (8) and total bases (66). She's second in the conference in runs batted in as well, with 25. Angelo went nine of 13 with a double, a triple, a home run, six runs scored and four runs batted in in four games played last week. Finally, the senior has eight round-trippers compared to just six strikeouts in 2024.
  • After starting the season slow, Gabi Turner has come on strong over the past couple of weeks. She put the Marauders in front in the top of the seventh in game one against West Chester last Tuesday with a three-run blast and the team has a record of 5-1 when she goes yard. That was just the latest in her series of clutch long balls; each of her last four homers have been go-ahead or game-tying shots. After going hitless in game one against the Mountaineers, she redeemed herself with a two for three performance in game two that provided four of the Marauder's 11 runs.
  • Gabby D'Ottavio is another key cog to this Millersville offense, and she also had a good day against Mansfield. D'Ottavio went three of six with a double and three runs batted in. She's fifth on the team in OPS and tied for second in doubles with four.

SCOUTING THE WARRIORS

  • After making it to the NCAA Championships and finishing last season ranked fifth in the nation, the Warriors are continuing their dominance in 2024. The Marauders are hoping to beat them for the first time since 2022, as the Warriors won all four contests last season.
  • The strength of this team thus far in 2024 has been their pitching staff; East Stroudsburg's team ERA is 1.74 over its 28 contests this season, which ranks first in the PSAC by nearly a half a run. Pitchers Paige Zigmund and Sarah Davenport have been among the leagues' best so far this season and are the main reason the Warriors have been so good in the circle. 
  • Zigmund is coming off of a season which some consider the best in the program's history and earned Atlantic Region First-Team honors as well as the PSAC East Pitcher of the Year award. This season, the senior's been among the league's best again, tallying an 11-2 record and a 1.92 earned run average on a league-high 87.2 innings pitched. Zigmund is also third in the PSAC in strikeouts with 92 and has tossed a complete game in nine of her fifteen starts. She became the program's all-time winningest pitcher with her forty-fifth victory on March 12 against Wilmington. 
  • Ranking second in the league in punchouts is her teammate, Sarah Davenport. The freshman has been dominant in her first taste of collegiate ball, ranking third in the league in earned run average at 1.35 and tallying 116 strikeouts over 72.2 innings pitched. She boasts an 11-3 mark and opponents are hitting just .197 against her, which ranks fourth in the conference. 
  • Offensively, the Warriors are a middle of the pack team overall but boast five players with a batting average over .300. They have been wreaking havoc on basepaths in 2024 and lead the league in stolen bases with 76. 

SCOUTING THE BALD EAGLES

  • Lock Haven is the only team in the PSAC East with a losing record at 6-11. The Bald Eagles have played many of the same teams that the Marauders have thus far, both in and out of conference. They were swept by West Chester on March 22 before splitting a doubleheader with Mansfield on March 24. The twin bill at Millersville is part of a gauntlet stretch in which the Bald Eagles are scheduled to play 12 games in eight days and comes on the front half of a back to back.
  • Lock Haven's offense is led by a pair of .400 hitters in Delaney Good and Maci Brodzina. Good was named to the All-PSAC East Second Team last season and has started her senior campaign by tallying base knocks in all but two contests en route to a team-high .426 average. That average ranks thirteenth in the conference. Good also leads her team in steals with nine in 12 attempts
  • Brodzina is tops on the Bald Eagles in slugging and on-base percentage with marks of .568 and .522, respectively. She's also drawn nine walks to just seven strikeouts.
  • In the circle for the Bald Eagles to start at least one of the games will be Faith Persing. She's the only one on the team with more than 20 innings pitched so far this season and has made 5 starts in her 11 appearances. Persing sports an earned run average of 3.57, which ranks one spot ahead of Millersville's Alex Schaefer for nineteenth in the PSAC. 

CHASING HISTORY

  • Aleese Angelo is on the heels of both a milestone and a Millersville softball program record. Her next double will put her at 50 for her career, becoming just the second player in school history to reach that mark. She's currently at 49, four away from Heather Lutz's program record of 53 career two-baggers.
  • Angelo will also make Millersville history with respect to runs scored in the coming days. She currently has 118 career runs scored, one short of second place all time. The senior would have a long way to go to reach first-place Lindsay Hosier, who sits atop the leaderboard with 141. Angelo is also six runs batted in away from becoming the first player in Millersville history to reach 150 for their career. 
  • Gabi Turner and Angelo are both nearing their five-hundredth plate appearance as a Marauder. Turner will most likely get there first as she has 486 while Angelo has 474 as of publication. 
  • Morgan Crutcher is nearing her two-hundredth strikeout as a Marauder, as she's currently six away with 194. When she does so, she will become the seventh pitcher in team history to achieve this mark. 
  • Alex Schaefer is nearing a few personal milestones after breaking the all-time strikeout mark earlier this season. She will most likely appear in her one-hundredth game as a Marauder this week as she currently has 97. Schaefer also has a chance to become the third hurler in Millersville history to reach 400 innings pitched for her career against East Stroudsburg; the senior's career total currently sits at 395.1. The final milestone within striking distance for Schaefer is the 400-strikeout club of which she would be the initial member. She's at 383 punchouts after her record-setting performance on Friday. 
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