April 7, 2011
Follow Game 1 | Game 2
PHILADELPHIA- On Thursday, the Explorers will play their second city-rival matchup of the season when they travel the Main Line to take on the Villanova Wildcats in a midweek doubleheader.
La Salle was rained out of its planned road matchup with the Monmouth Hawks on Tuesday, giving them two extra days of rest before taking on the Wildcats. At Villanova, the Explorers will begin a four-game road trip before returning to West Campus Field next Tuesday.
The last time the Explorers were out, they jumped out to an early lead on the Charlotte 49ers in game one of an Atlantic 10 Conference match, but were unable to hang on; losing 6-1 in the first end of the doubleheader before enduring the sweep at the conclusion of Charlotte’s 5-2 win in game two.
Last season against the Wildcats, the Explorers swept a doubleheader from their city-rival at West Campus Field, winning 3-1 in game one before making a comeback in the second game to win 4-2.
Senior Ali Shepherd , sophomore Liz Reed and freshman Megan Hodgson are all looking to extend hitting streaks when they face Villanova pitching on Thursday.
Junior Shannon Skomorucha is batting .462 in the team’s last six games. In her latest game, Skomourcha went 3-for-4, to make it the second time in her previous three games that she had a multi-hit game. In four of the last six games, Skomorucha has hit her way on base, helping to boost her batting average 95 points since the start of Atlantic 10 Conference play.
While senior DJ Guinn has pitched well as of late, having quality starts in five of her last six starts, senior Kristen Paoletti is coming off a solid homestand. In her two relief pitching stints over the last week, Paoletti allowed just one run through 7.2 innings of work, giving her a 1.12 ERA over that span. In 6.2 innings of against Charlotte, she allowed only one run and did not walk a batter. Paoletti also tossed a scoreless inning of relief work against Penn last Wednesday.
Villanova will be in the midst of back-to-back city-rivalry twin-billings. The Wildcats are coming off Wednesday’s two-game set with the Penn Quakers, in which they won 7-5 and tied 2-2 due to the game being called due to darkness in the fifth inning.
Prior to the matchup, Villanova (13-18-1, 2-4) is coming off four wins in its last six games after defeating and tying with Penn yesterday, taking one out of three from Georgetown this weekend and sweeping the University of Delaware in a two-game set on the road last week. On their home dirt this season, the Wildcats are 2-3 on the year at the Villanova Softball Complex.
Kristi Burlin heads into Thursday with a team-high three home runs and five doubles for the Wildcats. With 25 hits in 92 plate appearances, Burlin is Villanova’s leading hitter with a .307 batting average.
Pitcher Molly Manning owns an ERA of 2.73 through 14 appearances, including 12 starts. On the year, Manning is Villanova’s winningest pitcher with a 6-5 record here in 2011. Caitlyn Delahaba has demonstrated her ability to go deep into ballgames this season, as she has gone the distance in, notching 13 complete games in 18 of her starts. Delahaba is 6-12 on the year with 111 strikeouts and a 3.22 ERA through 115.1 innings of work.
La Salle and Villanova will get Thursday's doublheader underway beginning at 3PM.
Note: It has been officially announced that La Salle and Monmouth will not reschedule Tuesday’s rainout.
