3/10/22
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – The Lackawanna College Softball team has won three in a row, and five of their last six, and they'll put their win streak against a team that has won its first five games of the year, when the Falcons take on the Hawks from Henry Ford College in doubleheader action at the Cal Ripken Experience Softball Complex in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Thursday, March 10^th.
 
The first game is scheduled for 11:00am ET, and the second game will follow soon after at 1:00pm ET. There will be a video livestream available for all four games via Playsight. It is a subscription-based service, and there is a monetary cost to access live and on-demand video streams. You can find that site, along with info on how to join and watch, via this link HERE.
 
About the Falcons
Lackawanna College (5-3) has won three straight, including a doubleheader sweep over Rochester CTC in their last action on Wednesday. The Falcons, in their  three wins over Rochester, scored 30 runs and pounded out 35 hits against the YellowJackets, winning by an average margin of 10-3.
 
Through their first eight games, the Falcons are hitting a combined .296 from the plate, and have a .785 OPS as a team. Lackawanna College has 16 extra base hits, including ten doubles and four triples already this year. The Falcons have 12 stolen bases, and have drawn 32 walks already this year. The Lackawanna pitching staff has a combined 3.31 ERA, giving up 66 hits and 40 runs, 26 earned, in 55 innings so far this year. Lackawanna has struck out 28 batters, and given up 19 walks. Opponents have a .275 batting average against the Falcons this year. The Falcon defense has 24 combined errors in eight games.
 
Emma McNally leads the Falcons with a .423 batting average, and a stellar 1.346 OPS on the year. McNally already has 12 RBIs, another team-high, and has 11 hits on the year. She also has seven extra base hits, including four doubles and a pair of triples. McNally is slugging .846 so far this year, another team-best. McNally's best game came in an 11-6 win over Rochester CTC, where she went 3-for-4 with six RBIs, a double, a triple, and a pair of runs scored. She was 1-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored in the last game against Rochester.
 
Meghan Fritz is second on the team with a .409 batting average this year. She has nine hits on the season, tied for second on the squad, and has scored eight runs, tied for first with McNally on the team. Fritz is 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts this year, second on the team. Fritz has recorded a hit in her last five games, and has recorded at least two hits in her last four games. She was 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI, and two runs scored against Rochester in her last game at the plate.
 
Madison McVicar is third on the team with a .375 batting average this year. McVicar is tied with McNally for the team lead in OB% (.500), is tied for second on the team in hits (9), and is third on the team with a .958 OPS. McVicar has drawn a team-high six walks on the year, and has two doubles and five RBIs. Madison was 2-for-2 with two runs scored against Rochester in her last game.
 
Skylynn Gilligan is hitting .348 so far this season, and is fourth on the team with eight hits so far this year. Gilligan has a pair of RBIs to her name this year, and has drawn two walks on the season. She was a combined 5-for-7 with two runs scored and an RBI in two games against Rochester on Wednesday.
 
Kira Ryan leads the team in stolen bases, with four swipes in four attempts this year. She is batting .269 overall, but has driven in five runs on the year. She had three RBIs and a run scored against Rochester in the first game of Wednesday's doubleheader.
 
Meghan Fritz has three starts on the year, going 2-1 so far. Fritz, in a team-high 17 innings of work, has allowed 19 hits and struck out eight batters. She's given up 11 runs, eight earned, and walked six batters. Her ERA is 3.29, and opponents are hitting .264 against her this year. She started and went five innings in the 9-1, five inning win for the Falcons over Rochester on Wednesday.
 
Tess Ruschman is 2-0 on the year, winning her last start in the second game of a doubleheader against Rochester, going five innings and giving up three runs while scattering eight hits. Ruschman has a 2.92 ERA, and has given up 18 hits and six runs, five earned, in her 12 innings of work this year. Opponents are hitting .316 against her.  
 
MacKayla Quick is 0-2 on the year, but has been a strikeout threat for the Falcons when she's pitching. In her 12 innings of work, she's struck out ten batters, given up nine hits, and allowed six runs, three earned. Her ERA is 1.75, and opponents are hitting .205 against her.
 
Jeff Pittsman enters his eleventh season at the helm of the Falcons program. After some early growing pains when he took over in 2012, coach Pitt overhauled the Falcons program, turning it into a Region XIX contender year-in, and year-out. The Falcons had four straight seasons of 20+ wins, starting in 2016, and might have had another if not for the pandemic shuttering the 2020 season early. Pittsman is a two-time EPAC Coach of the Year, and has been a fixture in local softball circles for year. An NEPA native and Mid Valley HS graduate, Pittsman began his coaching career in football with the Mid Valley program, and other various schools around the area, before transitioning into coaching softball at the travel-team level. Eventually, his credentials helped him land the job with Lackawanna College, where he took over a team with barely enough players to safely compete, and steadily built the program into a winner.
 
About The Opponents
Henry Ford College comes in at 5-0 on the year, having outscored their opponents 49-9 in their five games this year. The Hawks have scored ten or more runs three times already this season, and are a blistering .403 as a team from the plate. Henry Ford College has a combined 1.053 OPS as a team, with a .513 OB% as a squad on the year. In five games, the Hawks have hit eleven extra base hits, and have drawn 28 walks, while stealing a combined 24 bases already this year, averaging just under five steals per game.
 
The Hawks' pitching staff has been equally as impressive so far this year, with a team ERA of 1.75 through the first five games. Opponents have 23 hits in a combined 24 innings against the pitching staff, and only nine runs came across, just six earned, with 13 strikeouts.
 
In their last game, the Hawks won 9-1 over Bay College, their third straight win over the Norse. Rachelle Frederick scattered five hits over four innings of work, before Emily Wiltsie came in to close out the fifth inning. Each pitcher struck out a batter. Henry Ford put up ten hits and drew five combined walks as a team. Wiltsie was 2-for-2 with two RBIs, a walk, and a run scored, while Allie Matheny was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Karlee Plensdorf is 2-for-2 with a double, a run scored, and a walk.
 
Lauren Gannon is the team-leader in several categories, leading the Hawks in batting average (.688), hits (11), and doubles (2). Gannon is second on the team in OPS (1.626), slugging (.938), and OBP (.688), and is also second on the team in stolen bases this year (4). Gannon has had multiple hits in four of her five games this year, and her best performance came in an 8-0 win over Bay College, where she went 2-for-3 with a double and a triple, and had a pair of RBIs. She also went 3-for-4 with three runs scored in a 12-1 win over Bay. She was 1-for-3 with an RBI in her last game.
 
Allie Matheny is second on the team with a .636 batting average, but leads the Hawks in OPS (1.824), OBP (.733), and slugging (1.091). She also leads the team in triples (2), and is second on the team in RBIs (9). Matheny went 3-for-3 in a 12-1 win over Bay College, where she had four RBIs, a double, a triple, and two runs scored. Matheny was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored in her last game.
 
Anna Atherton is third on the team with a .533 batting average, and is second on the team with eight total hits so far. Atherton also has a 1.232 OPS, and has five RBIs so far this year. She has also swiped three bases this year. Atherton was 3-for-3 with four RBIs and two runs scored in the 12-1 win over Bay College. She had a walk and scored a run against Bay College in their game on Thursday.
 
Haley Zimmerman has a .412 batting average, and is the team-leader in RBIs with eleven so far this year. Zimmerman has the only homerun on the team. Zimmerman is third on the team with a .647 slugging percentage. Zimmerman was 2-for-4 in a 10-1 win over Rochester CTC, where she had three RBIs and a run scored, and she also went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and a run scored in the 12-1 win over Bay College. Zimmerman was 1-for-2 with an RBI and run scored in her last game.
 
Jessica Laird and Karlee Plensdorf each lead the team with six stolen bases so far this year. Laird is hitting .385 on the year, and has a .529 OBP so far this season. Plensdorf is hitting .273, but she also has a team-high six walks, helping her with a .529 OBP.
 
Emily Wiltsie has pitched 14 innings on the year, and won both of her starts for the Hawks. She has a 2.00 ERA, and has given up 13 hits, seven runs, four earned, and struck out nine batters. Rachelle Frederick is the only other pitcher who has seen time, starting and winning in all three of her appearances. Frederick has pitched ten innings, giving up ten hits and two runs, both earned. She has a 1.40 ERA on the year.
 
The head softball coach for Henry Ford College is Steven Brown, in his fifth season. Brown took over as head softball coach in the 2018 season, and steadily built the Hawks into a winner, going from a ten-win season in 2018 to a 29-win season last year. Brown is a fixture at Henry Ford College, where he started as head baseball coach in 2010, rebuilding the program and helping them to a Region XII baseball tournament appearance in 2015. Brown stepped away to assume responsibility in the administration as Assistant AD for Compliance for the College. Brown is a Detroit native, where he played baseball and won a state football championship, before moving on to Wiley College, where he continued his baseball career. Brown came back to Detroit to coach high school baseball, while also serving as Dean of Students and AD at his alma mater. He moved to a supervisory role in the private sector, but still kept his foot in the door while coaching youth baseball and travel team baseball. Brown is 66-68 in his time as head softball coach at Henry Ford, coming off a 29-10 season last year, where the Hawks won their conference and state championships, while also finishing second in the District, and earning coach Brown a Conference COTY award.
 
Game Information
The first game of Thursday's doubleheader will start at 11:00am ET. The second game is scheduled for 1:00pm ET. The Falcons will also play Henry Ford College in a single game on Friday, March 11^th, at 1:00pm ET.
 
There will be a video livestream available for all three games via Playsight. It is a subscription-based service, and there is a monetary cost to access live and on-demand video streams. You can find that site, along with info on how to join and watch, via this link HERE.