BRADFORD, Pa. – Curwensville Area High School graduates Bart McGary of Curwensville and Phil Solley of Grampian both finished among the top five in several categories for the 2008 University of Pitt-Bradford baseball team.
The Panthers\’ season ended with a 9-2 loss at No. 4 seed Washington & Jefferson in an Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) South Regional first-round game on May 14.
McGary doubled and scored the fifth-seeded Panthers\’ first run in the second inning and later reached base on a walk and being hit by a pitch. Solley saw his four-game hitting streak halted.
In the semifinals, W & J was nipped 7-6 by top-seeded Alvernia, which squeezed past Delaware Valley 6-5 for the title.
Pitt-Bradford heated up in the second half of the season after losing 10 games in a row for a 6-12 mark to close 23-21.
McGary and Solley, both sophomores, were hitting in the .280s with one week gone in April.
McGary collected 27 hits in 61 official at-bats for a .443 pace that raised his average to .358, second-best on the team. Solley was 32-for-94 in those 26 games, a .340 clip that lifted his average to .326, which was fifth-highest for the Panthers.
McGary played in 42 games, with 25 of his 39 starts at third base. He also started 12 games at first base and two as the designated hitter.
He was third in hits (40) and doubles (8), fourth in runs batted in (25) and total bases (51), fifth in runs (20) and sixth in official at-bats (111).
McGary drew a team-high 28 walks and was hit six times for a .510 on-base percentage that led the Panthers. His .459 slugging percentage was third highest.
McGary\’s fielding percentage was .894 for 152 chances. He was third in assists (39) and participated in eight double plays.
The only Panther to appear in all 44 games, Solley started 22 in right field but also was penciled in as the left fielder, catcher and designated hitter in 18 other games.
He was second in official at-bats (132), hits (43) and RBIs (33), tied for second in total bases (55) and fourth in runs (26) and walks (16).
He was one of four Panthers with a triple and shared the home run lead with two of the team\’s 10 circuit blows, winding up fifth in slugging (.417) and on-base (.400) percentage .
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LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Freshman Brittany Pataky of Clearfield pinch-hit in a pair of extra-inning losses to eventual champion Humboldt (Cal.) State that cost the Lock Haven University softball team a shot at the title in the 2008 NCAA Division II Championships last week at Houston, Texas.
The Lady Eagles, champions of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and the Mid-Atlantic Regional, were edged 2-1 in 10 innings on May 14 and 1-0 in a 17-inning classic on May 16 at Memorial Park.
Sandwiched between those tough setbacks were 3-0 wins over C.W. Post and Ferris (Mich.) State.
Pataky fouled out in LHU\’s tourney opener and then was Most Valuable Player Lizzy Prescott\’s 21st strikeout victim for the final out of the marathon rematch. Prescott set a national tourney record with her strikeout total, getting seven of the nine Lady Eagle starters at least twice.
Lock Haven had only four baserunners, none reaching second base. Erica Eisenbise\’s fifth-inning single was the lone hit off Prescott, who walked one.
Loser Kristen Erb struck out 12 to raise her junior season total to 420, tying a PSAC record. She posted a 43-8 record in 52 appearances, including 47 starts, and tied the PSAC record with 29 shutouts. In 356 innings, she surrendered only 22 walks and 26 runs (13 earned), hit four batters and had one wild pitch. Her 0.26 earned run average was fifth best in PSAC history.
Pataky, who played in 30 games with 11 starts at first base, was 13-for-40, a .325 batting average. She had three doubles and drove in eight runs.
She came through with seven pinch-hits in 18 trips to the plate, a .389 average. The rest of the team was 9-for-38 in pinch-hitting roles.
Pataky had a .967 fielding average, with only three errors in 90 chances.
Lock Haven wound up 49-8 for a 159-17 record in Erb\’s three seasons in the pitching circle.
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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Nikki Collins of Clearfield ended her freshman season for the Slippery Rock University softball team with a .239 batting average on 17 hits in 70 official at-bats.
She started 37 games at second base and one at shortstop for The Rock, which lost 5-4 in nine innings to Bloomsburg and 4-0 to Shippensburg in the NCAA Division II Mid-Atlantic Regional to finish 27-17, a school record for wins.
Collins tied for fourth in doubles with six and was one of only three SRU players to register a triple.
She drove in nine runs and scored 16.
In the field, Collins had 146 chances, fourth highest on the team. She was third in assists with 65.
The Rock was 7-13 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division gam
