Orange Closes Out Regular Season Versus Buffalo

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The SU softball team (34-20) puts the wraps on its 2006 regular season when it hosts Buffalo (13-39) at the SU Softball Stadium on Wednesday, May 3. Live audio will be available for both games of the doubleheader on suathletics.com via Orange All-Access. Todd Robbins will call the play-by-play.

The Orange has already established school record totals for victories (34), conference wins (15) and home triumphs (12). With its 15-7 conference mark, SU has secured its second straight berth in the BIG EAST Championship which gets underway on Thursday, May 11 at the Belleville Softball Complex in South Bend, Ind. USF, Louisville, Notre Dame, Providence and Pittsburgh have also locked up spots in the single-elimination tournament.

Wednesday's twin bill will mark the last home appearances for seniors Alexis Switenko and Cassie Morales. Their careers were honored in a ceremony prior to SU’s doubleheader versus Providence on April 30.

Orange Concludes Best Month Ever
The 2006 edition of the Orange closed out April with the best monthly record in school history. Syracuse was 20-6 last month, by far its best record for any month since the inception of the
program. The Orange had winning streaks of six and seven games during the four week stretch.

April has traditionally been the team’s most successful month. The Orange is 86-65-1 all-time in the month of April, the only month in team history in which SU has a winning record.

They Love ‘Em Loaded
Syracuse is batting .450 (18-40) as a team with the bases loaded in 2006 with four grand slams. The Orange had just two slams in the previous six years of the program.

Senior Cassie Morales leads the team with a .833 (5-6) average with the sacks jacked. She hit SU’s first slam of the year back on Feb. 25 against Loyola-Chicago. Freshman Heather Kim and senior Alexis Switenko are hitting better than .600 with the bases full. Kim is 2-for-3 (.667) and Switenko is 5-for-8 (.625).

Roehner Coming Around
Sophomore Chanel Roehner has been hitting the ball much better since being dropped in the batting order after SU’s two losses at Louisville. Since being moved from second in the lineup to the nine spot seven games ago, she leads the Orange with a .474 (9-19) batting average. She also has four runs scored.

She recorded the first multi-homer game of her career against Connecticut on April 28, belting two, two-run shots to increase her career home run total to 10, tied for the fifth on the SU all-time list. Her four RBI versus the Huskies was also a career best.

For the season, Roehner is batting .254 (35-138) with five home runs and 17 RBI. She also has two stolen bases.

Scouting Buffalo
The Bulls are 13-39 overall and have lost eight of their last 10 games, but defeated Niagara, 4-3, on May 2 in its most recent outing. Only seven of their 52 contests have been played at home so they are used to traveling. Buffalo’s neutral site and away record is 11-34. They are hitting just .223 as a teamand have been outscored by their opponents, 283-129.

Erin Zilka is the team’s top hitter with a .302 batting average (38-126). Zilka is tied for the team lead with six home runs and is slugging .476. Sophie Barstad is Buffalo’s top run producer with 25 RBI and Marcy Hansen leads the team with 11 stolen bases.

Barstad also has 10 of Buffalo’s 13 wins in the pitching circle. She is 10-21 with a 3.12 ERA and 119 strikeouts in 195 innings.

The Series
The Orange is 4-1 all-time against Buffalo. The first four meetings of the series came in 2000 as the two teams competed in a pair of doubleheaders. SU also posted a 9-4 victory in the National Invitational Tournament in 2002. The two squad's have not met since. The Bulls' only victory of the series came on April 14, 2000 by the score of 2-1 at the SU Softball Stadium.

Syracuse University Athletics

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