Concord Starts Eight Game Road Trip

Concord Stats - West Liberty Stats - Wheeling Jesuit Stats - West Virginia State Stats

ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University softball team will begin a six-game road trip 2:00 p.m. Thursday at West Virginia State before making the trek to West Liberty 1:00 p.m. Saturday and to Wheeling Jesuit 11:00 a.m. Sunday.

RECORDS
• The Mountain Lions start the week with an overall mark of 25-11 and 13-3 in the Mountain East Conference, good enough for second in the league standings.

• West Liberty is 13-24 overall and 4-12 against MEC foes.

• Wheeling Jesuit holds down the fourth spot in the MEC standings with a mark of 9-5 while they it is 13-13 overall.

THE COAHCES
• Concord's Alisa Tasler is 96-95 in her four seasons at Concord and needs four wins to achieve 100 wins for her career.

• James Bacca has been at WLU for six years and has a record of 86-207-1. 

• Kelly Williams in is her second season at Wheeling Jesuit and sports a career record of 33-46.

MOUNTAIN LION NOTES
• CU appeared in the initial edition of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Rankings as it found itself ranked sixth, one of four MEC teams to be ranked as West Virginia Wesleyan (second), Charleston (third) and Fairmont State (10^th) also appeared in the rankings.

• This is the second straight year the Mountain Lions have been ranked in the regional rankings, however, CU narrowly missed out on a regional appearance last year.

• But, the turnaround the Concord program has experience under the fourth-year head coach Tasler is truly remarkable as up until last year's 31-23 record, the Mountain Lions hadn't experienced a winning season since 2000.

• At 25-11, Concord can match and break the all-time record for wins in a season, set by last year's squad at 31, on the upcoming road trip.

• On Sunday against conference-leading West Virginia Wesleyan, CU earned a split with WVWC as Concord won game one on a walk-off RBI from junior second baseman Kristen Rose.

• Sophomore outfielder Lauren Lewis was a big influence in Concord's win as she hit her ninth home run of the season, a two-run shot in the first inning.

• In her last eight games, Lewis is batting .518 (14-for-27) with nine runs scored, five home runs and 13 RBI as the Kearneysville, West Virginia native has seen her average jump from .305 to .352.

• With two home runs over weekend against Glenville and WWVC, junior catcher Alyssa Morris extended her conference lead in home runs to 12.

• In the process, Morris also surpassed her homer total from a season ago when she hit 11 home runs.

• CU is just 8-7 on the road this season, however, the last time the Mountain Lions embarked on a road trip of more than two games they swept doubleheaders against Fairmont State and Shepherd as they outscored the two teams 33-6 March 21 and 22.

• The two games against Wheeling Jesuit will pit two of the best pitching staffs in the MEC against each other.

• CU has the second-lowest ERA in the league at 2.17 while the Cardinals are 3.03. Additionally, CU is third in strikeouts with 145 and WJU is fourth with 130.

• Senior pitcher / first baseman Lacey McDougall and freshman pitcher Katie Snodgress both have ERAs under two as McDougall's is 1.43 while Snodgress' is 1.79.

• Heading into this weekend, Morris has reached base safely in 25 straight games.

• Concord is 12-2 when junior pitcher Allie Reid hits fifth in the lineup and just 13-9 when any other Mountain Lion hits in the five spot.

• Reid is on pace to shatter her previous season career-high batting average. Last year, the Lovettsville, Virginia batted .242, and this season Reid is hitting .333.