April 2, 2007
EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) -
Lafayette used seventh-inning comebacks to win its first two Patriot League softball games of the year over the weekend, and on Monday two of the principal players were recognized by the league for their performances at Bucknell.
Junior first baseman Kristen Ruckno (Wallingford, Pa./Central Bucks East) was named Patriot League Player of the Week and freshman pitcher Kasey Karr (Warren, Ohio/Warren-Champion) was tabbed as the Rookie of the Week after the Leopards opened the league slate 2-1, with the series finale scheduled to be played today in Lewisburg.
Ruckno hit .500 (5-of-10) for the reporting week, including a pair of seventh-inning singles that helped spur the comebacks. The junior hit a two-out, two-run single in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader to give the Leopards a 3-2 lead as they went on to post a 4-2 victory. On Sunday, she drove in the game-tying run before Karr plated the eventual game-winner in Lafayette's 5-3 win.
For the season, Ruckno is second on the team with a .328 batting average and has a team-best 16 runs batted in. She also holds Lafayette's single season and career home run records after belting 10 homers last year, and 17 in her career.
Karr picked up the complete game victory in both games and was particularly sharp in her outing on Saturday. The freshman retired the first 15 batters she faced in the first Patriot League action of her career before giving up a pair of unearned runs in the sixth inning, but the Leopards were able to climb out of a 2-1 hole in the top of the seventh. Karr gave up just two hits in the contest.
In Sunday's action, Karr notched a career-high seven strikeouts and surrendered three runs (two earned) over seven innings. Karr's RBI single in the seventh gave Lafayette a 4-3 lead, its first of the game, and she came around to score on a wild pitch to set the final margin after retiring the side in the bottom of the inning.
Karr is the second Lafayette freshman to earn Patriot League Rookie of the Week accolades, joining teammate Christina Giambrone. She has a 5-4 record with one save this season in a dozen appearances and has already thrown 57.0 innings for the Leopards.
