Allegheny Aims for NCAC Tournament Title

May 3, 2007

MEADVILLE, Pa. – After being crowned the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Champions in 2004 and 2005, the Allegheny College softball team missed out on a chance for a three-peat last season, but the Gators are back and ready to fight for both the conference crown and the automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Despite finishing in a three-way tie for fourth place in 2006, Allegheny (15-16, 9-5 NCAC) was kept out of the NCAC tournament by losing tiebreakers to Ohio Wesleyan University and Wittenberg University. The Blue & Gold ensured its spot in the four-team field this spring, winning each of its first seven league games of the year and finishing with a 9-5 mark, good enough for the No. 3 seed.

This year’s NCAC Tournament features all three of its prior winners. Host and top-seed Denison University (27-13, 13-1 NCAC) is making its sixth appearance with three titles to its credit, while No. 3 Allegheny and No. 2 Wittenberg (27-11, 11-3 NCAC) are each making appearance No. 5, the former winning a pair of crowns and the latter claiming the remaining tournament title in 2003. Hiram College (21-12, 8-6 NCAC), the fourth seed, is making its first appearance in the postseason.

The Gators might be only team in the field with a sub-.500 record, but that doesn’t mean the other three teams should take them lightly. Allegheny has won 13 of its last 20 games overall, hitting a balmy .325 as a team over that stretch with an earned run average of 2.19. The squad has combined speed and power this spring, belting a league-high 12 home runs, not to mention ranking second in the NCAC statistics in stolen bases with 57.

The Blue & Gold feature a myriad of offensive weapons at the plate, not the least of which is sophomore shortstop Rachel Ryan (West Salem, Ohio/Northwestern). In her second year with the club, Ryan has hit for an average of .442 (42-for-95) with league highs in on-base percentage (.505) and slugging percentage (.779), the latter ranking as the fourth-highest number in school history. She has also clubbed six triples and five home runs to go with 28 RBI – all team bests.

Those gaudy numbers have been helped in large part to the production generated from lead-off hitter and Ryan’s middle infield mate, Abby Bodenlos (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shady Side Academy). The Gator speedster has done immeasurable amounts of damage on the base paths this season, swiping an Allegheny and NCAC record 28 bases in 31 games. She has also scored a team-best 30 runs, while reaching base almost 50 percent of the time.

Although Ryan and Bodenlos draw a lot of attention from opposing pitching, the remainder of the Gator lineup is far from weak, with a slew of hitters hovering around a .300 batting average. Freshmen Rebecca Burns (St. Rogersville, Pa./West Greene) and junior Crystal Ptacek (Allison Park, Pa./North Allegheny) are at .284 and .282, respectively, while junior Emmalynn Sigrist (Amherst, N.Y./Williamsville North) is hitting at a clip of .304.

Run production is fairly even up and down the lineup for the Gators with Burns and fellow first-year Katie Wills (McKees Rocks, Pa./Montour) tying for second on the team with 19 RBI. Wills and Elizabeth Burr (Farmdale, Ohio/Badger) have each come around to score 15 times on the season, just one behind junior Sarah Reilly (Dunkirk, N.Y./Dunkirk), who has reached home 16 times to go with nine stolen bases.

All the offense has been in support of a first-year pitchers in Allison Korotkin (Birmingham, Mich./Detroit Country Day) and Alicia Morley (Sinclairville, N.Y./Cassadaga Valley). Korotkin, who is coming off a five-hit shutout of Baldwin-Wallace College, is 6-4 this spring with an earned run average of 2.49, while Morley is 9-9 with an ERA of 3.18. The pair have combined for four shutouts and 128 strikeouts in 179.1 innings pitched.

The opening game in Granville, Ohio, is slated for 10 a.m. on Friday between Allegheny and Wittenberg with Denison and Hiram squaring off around noon. The winners and losers from the opening pair of games will then meet later on Friday at 2 and 4 p.m., respectively. Saturday’s contests are scheduled for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., with a potential seventh game taking place at 3 p.m. if necessary.

For a full schedule and up-to-date information on the 2007 NCAC Tournament, please visit the official website by clicking HERE

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