Spring Sports Wrap Up

BY ZACH MORETTI

As summer draws near and the school year comes to a close, spring sports here at the University of Mary Washington begin to wrap up their seasons as well. Let’s take a look back and see how our spring teams fared this year in their respective sports.

The UMW baseball squad had its up and downs this season but never seemed to quite hit their stride. The Eagles’ are currently 14-15 overall and in fourth place in the Capital Athletic Conference with a 7-11 conference record. The pitching staff was sub par as the team ERA was 4.82 for the year and the team failed to consistently produce runs as they were fifth in the conference in runs per game.

The team was anchored by junior Will Wright, who led the team in batting average, runs, hits, RBI, doubles, triples, and total bases while finishing second in slugging and on-base percentage. The team does still have four games remaining on the schedule and will try to end a disappointing season on a high note.

While the baseball team had its struggles this year, the UMW softball team had a successful campaign on the diamond in 2009. They finished the year 25-16 overall and 9-3 in CAC play, which was good enough for a third place regular season finish. The team also played its way through the CAC tournament to get all the way to the championship game before falling to Salisbury 8-0.

The hitting for this bunch was solid with .281 team batting average, but their strength was clearly the pitching staff, as the team posted a sparkling 2.38 ERA. When the 2010 season comes around the team will be without star seniors in pitcher Kirsten Rowell and prominent hitter Julianne Sudduth, who both will have graduated, but the team is still very young overall and there is reason to be optimistic for the future.
The Mary Washington men’s lacrosse season started out promising as through their first six games the team was 4-2. However, they went just 4-5 down the stretch to finish 8-7 overall and 2-5 in conference play which resulted in a sixth place finish.

The team was led by senior midfielders Brent Fisk and Charlie White as Fisk led the squad in goals with 31 and total points with 37 while Fisk was second in assists with 15 and total points with 35. The team will look to current juniors Brian Deal and Dan Coats to step up as seniors in 2010 to try and make that a more successful season than the 2009 campaign was.

Meanwhile, the women’s lacrosse team finished third in the CAC with a 5-2 conference mark and a 13-6 record overall. In the CAC tournament, the team defeated sixth-seeded York in the quarterfinals and second-seeded St. Mary’s in the semifinals to advance to the championship game against Salisbury which will be played this Friday at 7 pm @ Salisbury. The team is led by freshman standout Catherine Kennedy, who leads not only the team, but the entire CAC conference in goals with 70 and total points with 81. Kennedy and the rest of the Eagle’s lacrosse team will look to avenge an earlier loss to Salisbury and try to capture a CAC title.

The men’s track and field team finished second in the CAC championship with a score of 188.50 and 34.5 points behind Salisbury who won their sixth straight title. Mary Washington junior Brian Fulton won the 10,000 meter event with a time of 33:50.56 that broke the CAC record for that event. Furthermore, UMW junior Jake Pattyson and freshman Kyle Anderson finished second and third respectively and also finished with times that broke the previous record in the 10,000 meter event. The Eagles’ Jason Driscoll also set a new mark in the 1,500 meter run with a time of 3:57.38. Mary Washington’s track and field team returns many key athletes next year and they should be in the thick of things for the championship yet again.
The women’s track and field team continued its dominance over the rest for the CAC teams as they won the 2009 championship to capture an astonishing sixteenth straight track and field title. The team finished a dominating 86 points ahead of second place Salisbury and two CAC records were shattered on UMW’s run to yet another championship. Sophomore Haley Sullivan’s 5,000 meter time of 18:19.15 demolished the previous mark by over 17 seconds while senior Mae Winchester took home the 100-meter hurdles record with a 14.76 time. The team is still young and extremely talented and they have a fantastic shot at taking a seventeenth crown when competition starts back up in spring of 2010.

Congratulations to all the spring sports teams on their seasons and hopefully 2010 will bring about even more success than in past years.