Orangewomen Softball Hosts Virginia Tech
4/6/2002 4:11:58 PM | Softball
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Orangewomen softball team will play its first home games of the season when it hosts Virginia Tech on Sunday, April 7 in a BIG EAST doubleheader. SU is 12-10 overall and 2-0 in the league, while the Hokies are 25-8 overall and 4-0 in the conference.
Syracuse had a pair of doubleheaders wiped out because of weather earlier this week and have not played since sweeping Connecticut, 7-0 and 4-1, on Saturday, March 30.
The Orangewomen have won nine of their last 12 games. It is SU’s best start in the program’s three-year history. The inaugural squad in 2000 was 9-13 after 22 games and last year’s team was 6-16 at this point in the season. The Orangewomen also matched the school record with a five-game winning streak from March 9-15.
Redshirt sophomore Cheryl Julicher (Williamsville, N.Y./Williamsville North) has already broken the SU single-season record for home runs with seven round-trippers in 22 games. Julicher also held the previous record of four set in 2000. She set another school record with home runs in five consecutive games from Mar. 9-15. Syracuse is 7-0 when Julicher goes deep. For the season, Julicher is hitting .333 (23-for-69) with four doubles and a team-best 19 runs batted in. Julicher also leads the Orangewomen with a .696 slugging percentage.
Junior outfielder Kristen Collins (Stow, Mass./Nashoba Regional) leads the team and the BIG EAST with a .525 batting average. Collins has a team-best 31 hits, eight more than she had all of last season. She went 4-for-5 in SU’s doubleheader at Connecticut with a double, two runs scored and an RBI. The double was her sixth of the season, tying the SU single-season record. Collins is currently on a six-game hitting streak and has been held hitless just three times this season. Earlier this season she set a school-record with four hits versus Miami (OH) on March 9. She leads the team with nine multi-hit games. For the season, she is second on the team with 12 runs scored and has driven in eight runs. She also ranks second on the squad with a .661 slugging percentage.
Senior pitcher Heather Brown (Farmington, N.M./Farmington) started her BIG EAST campaign with a 7-0 shutout of Connecticut. It was Brown's second complete-game shutout of the season. She struck out nine hitters without allowing a walk and scattered just four hits, all singles. For the season, Brown is second on the team with a 2.42 earned run average and 51 strikeouts in 52 innings of work. Brown also has Syracuse’s only save of the season.
After a 1-3 start, junior pitcher Tara DiMaggio (Hopewell Junction, N.Y./John Jay) has gone 4-2 with a 1.83 ERA in her last six starts. DiMaggio clinched Syracuse's doubleheader sweep at Connecticut with a complete-game two-hitter in the second game. She allowed only one unearned run while striking out seven. DiMaggio was the losing pitcher in SU's 1-0 loss at Hofstra despite allowing just three hits in six and one-third innings. She struck out six in the losing effort. DiMaggio leads the team in 2002 with five victories and 69 strikeouts in 63 and two-thirds innings of work. She has completed seven of her 10 starts and has two complete-game shutouts to her credit.
Virginia Tech has won 15 of its last 16 games, including a 13-game winning streak that was snapped versus Virginia on April 3. The Hokies took two from Connecticut, 7-5 and 3-0, on Saturday, April 6.
The two teams have split the only two games they have played. The Orangewomen earned their first-ever BIG EAST victory last season versus Hokies, taking a 2-0 win in Blacksburg in the second game of a doublheader.
