April 15, 2011
La Salle Explorers (2-25, 0-8) vs. Temple Owls (16-18, 7-3)
Atlantic 10 Conference Game
When: Friday, April 15, 2011 3 PM & 5 PM
Where: West Campus Field
Forecast: Mostly Cloudy, 55 Degrees; Winds: (E) 13 MPH
Follow on GameTracker: Game 1 | Game 2
PHILADELPHIA-It's the beginning of a pair of weekend city-rivalries for the Explorers. La Salle continues its current homestand today with a doubleheader against the Temple Owls at West Campus Field.
Temple and La Salle are playing a doubleheader on Friday due to rain in the forecast for Saturday afternoon, when the two schools were orignally set to meet to close out the two-game set.
Temple comes into today’s games having not played since April 3. Four straight rained out doubleheaders have given the Owls extended rest heading into today’s ballgames with the Explorers.
In their last time out, the Owls swept an Atlantic 10 two-game set from the George Washington Colonials in the nation’s capital.
La Salle is entering today in search for its first conference win of the season. On Tuesday, the Explorers dropped a rained-shortened 4-0 contest to the Drexel Dragons at West Campus Field.
Junior Shannon Skomorucha leads La Salle with a .500 (6-for-12) batting average in home games this season.
Freshman Jackie McBride has driven in five runs in A-10 play so far, giving her the most on the team.
Senior pitcher DJ Guinn comes off Tuesday’s complete game. She looks to continue her solid pitching in conference games when she heads to the circle. In A-10 play, Guinn’s ERA is 3.46. Take away last week’s 1.1 innings in which she allowed three runs against the Fordham Rams, Guinn owns an erA of 2.80 with three quality starts.
Temple head coach Joe DiPietro, now in his third season at the helm of the Owls, comes to La Salle to take on the school he coached for six seasons. DiPietro coached the Explorers from 2003-2008, posting a record of 87-171-1 during that span. In 2008, DiPietro’s squad compiled 22 wins to give La Salle its winningest season since 1997.
Current La Salle head coach Brianne Brown was a graduate assistant in DiPietro's final year at La Salle.
Laura Dezolt, Temple’s assistant coach also has La Salle connections. DeZolt graduated from La Salle in 2007 and played softball for the Explorers from 2004-2007.
The Owls have four hitters on their team batting .307 or higher through at least 30 games. Kristen Marris is batting .379 with 36 hits on the season.
