April 29, 2004

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Army softball team travels to Bethlehem, Pa., this weekend to battle host Lehigh, Colgate and Bucknell for the 2004 Patriot League Championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Black Knights (25-20) head into the tournament as the No. 2 seed (15-5 Patriot League) after posting a school league record 15 wins to earn their fifth straight berth. It is the second time in the last five years that Army has been seeded second. Authoring its most prolific turnaround in school history, the Black Knights captured 18 of their last 22 games to close out the regular-season 25-20 after returning from Florida 4-11. It is Army's sixth straight 20-win season and 15th winning campaign overall.

Lehigh captured its sixth straight regular-season Patriot League title and 11th overall with a 16-2 mark. The Mountain Hawks are 36-14-2 and just three wins shy of tying their own league mark for wins (39) that they first set in 2001 and equaled last spring.

Nikki Posey

Lehigh's regular-season success, however, has not carried over into tournament play. Though capturing six regular-season titles over a seven-year span between 1997-2003, the Mountain Hawks have won the tournament title just once, that in 2001. Last year Lehigh fell to Colgate in a winners' round and then was eliminated by fourth-seed Army 3-1. It was just the second time in Patriot League history that the bottom seed reached the finals. Colgate ended Army's run with a 2-0 victory in the title game.

The top-seed and host Mountain Hawks have drawn No. 4 seed Bucknell (14-24/8-12 PL) for the first game Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Lehigh swept the Bison, who are making their first tournament appearance in four years, during the regular season.

The second game Saturday at 11 a.m. pits Army and defending tournament champion and No. 3 Colgate. The Raiders, setting a school record for wins, enter the weekend 32-14 overall and 11-7 in the conference. Army swept the four-game series with Colgate on April 10-11, knocking the Raiders out of first place and into third place in the league standings.

The losers from the first two games will meet at 1 p.m. in an elimination game, while the winners play at 3 p.m. The final game Saturday will be another elimination game between the winner of game three and the loser of game four. The two remaining teams play Sunday in the championship game for the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Army's season series with the tournament field has been quite exciting. Though showing a 9-3 mark, six of the games were one-run affairs while two others were won by a pair of runs. All four games in Army's series with Lehigh were one-run decisions. After the Black Knights won both games the first day (3-1, 1-0) in their final at bat, Lehigh nipped Army's seventh-inning rallies in sweeping both games, 4-3, the next day.

Leigh Harrell

The other one-run decisions came in Army's series with Bucknell. The Black Knights lone loss to the Bison was a 7-6 nightcap edging the opening day of the series. But Army pulled out a 5-4 victory in the second game of day two, sweeping the doubleheader.

The Black Knights pulled out a pair of two-run victories on day one against Colgate. Army rallied twice from 4-1 and 6-4 deficits to take the opener 9-7. The Black Knights then blanked the Raiders 3-0 in the nightcap. Army completed the sweep 5-0 and 5-3 on Sunday to capture all four regular-season meetings.

The Black Knights head into the tournament as the league's top hitting team with a .288 overall average and are batting .322 in league play. Lindsey Gerheim, the league's "Freshman of the Year," tops the club with her .330 batting average. Three others Black Knights are hitting around the .300 mark. Lindsay March and Nikki Posey are batting .304 and .298, respectively. Veronica Lauzon is wielding the top bat for the Black Knights in league play with a .378 average followed by March (.371), Lauren Gobar (.351), Gerheim (.340) and Lisa Huntington (.327).

Gobar pilfered a team and league best 56 bases over the three years. She joined March and Gerheim as first team league all- stars, while Huntington and Posey are second team picks along with pitchers Leigh Harrell and Ashlie Christian. Harrell tops the league in appearances (34), innings pitched (154.0) and games started (23) and is second in wins (14). Christian tops Army and the Patriot League in career saves with 11. Her five this season are tied for 12th nationally.

With 296 career wins, head coach Jim Flowers is fast approaching win No. 300, which will make him the seventh coach in academy history to collect all 300 wins along the Banks of the Hudson. When he does, his name will be etched alongside former Black Knight coaching greats Jack Riley (hockey -542), Carleton Crowell ( track -351), Bob Gambardella (volleyball - 326), Jack Ryan (swimming and diving - 308), Ron Bazil (track - 303) and Eric Tipton (baseball and lightweight football - 338).

Flowers will become the fourth coach on the present staff to reach that milestone, joining Rob Riley (hockey), Jack Emmer (lacrosse) and Jim Crews (men's basketball).

The Patriot League Tournament has been magical towards Flowers in milestone achievements. The Army mentor registered his 200th win in a 12-10 extra-inning championship game as the Black Knights captured their first NCAA bid in 2000. In similar fashion two years later, he notched his 250th victory in a 2-1 win to capture his fourth league title and earn his second trip to the NCAA Tournament.