Aquinas THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008 Sports 11 Softball strong as season starts Royals Fight Song By Colin Gibson tant coach. Staff Writer An anticipated non-conference match-up comes against rival Mi- This year, the Royals softball Competition sericordia University, a game that team is ready to hit the field and will be played at home on April play ball. 14. Think you have school pride? There’s a good mix of return- Playing in a conference against ing players, including three new teams, the team believes that senior captains: Mary Beth they can put together a big sea- Want to live in infamy at The U? Vogel, Erin Moreau and Bridgett son. McGinley. “Our last couple of seasons we The team also consists of ju- have improved a lot,” said Men- Compose an original chant that is under one minute niors Isabel Mendez, Sarah Ca- dez, a junior pitcher. “The team long to be sung at University games and sporting podice and Molly Matyas, and is coming together and blending sophomores Sarah Downey, Sa- during practices, and we believe events. Send entries to [email protected] or mantha Russo, Nikki Malloy, Jessi- that games will get even better. bring them to the Student Government office, lo- ca Williams, Ashley Boyers, Ashley “Our girls work hard and we Regan and Kasey Borbidge. bring our strengths on the field. cated at 205R in the Student Forum. This year’s incoming freshmen We all seem to balance each other are Annie Zeleniak, Mia Collarini, out, so with a little more practice Tara Shoebridge, Kaitlin Verdon, we think we could do really well Deadline: April 23 @ 6p.m. Ashley Garbarino, and Katie Jo- this year.” hansen. The Royals will play their first If no entries are deemed suitable, a winner will not be chosen. The team’s youth will be advan- game on March 25 when they hit tage in the future, but the leader- the road to take on Wilkes Univer- Contact walshh2 for more information. ship provided by upperclassmen is sity. the key to success right now. Their first home game comes Leading the team will be head on March 29 against Juniata Col- coach Colleen Mahon, who is re- lege. turning for her fourth season Photo by Bill Johnson with the Royals and third as head Colin Gibson is a junior English Royal riders review coach. THE ROYALS softball team major from Sugarloaf. looks to its season in the By Debbie mcbride ond class of the day and tying for Jim Mahon will serve as assis- Landmark Conference. Student Athlete Correspondent overall high point rider. She then went on to win in a It was a long weekend for The close ride-off against East Strouds- Student previews MLB AL Central University of Scranton’s Eques- burg’s Kaitlin Black. trian team. The team ended the day with compiled By chris desch Sheffield, Guillen and Renteria, one of the worst hitters’ parks in The team spent a cold, wet thirty-five points, coming in sec- Staff Writer opposing pitchers should already baseball. Oh yeah, and they also Saturday at Lafayette University’s ond overall, just three points be- plan on playing golf when the Ti- traded away the best pitcher in horse show hosted by Briarwood hind East Stroudsburg. 1. Cleveland Indians gers come to town. Even Pudge baseball. Farm in Flemington, N.J., and Key returners: Grady Sizemore Rodriguez, batting ninth, showed This will be a good year for hosted their own intercollegiate Saturday Results (CF), Travis Hafner (DH), C.C. Sa- flashes of his old self last season Minnesota: An 85-win season is show on Sunday. Open flat: 4th Chelsea Levine, 6th bathia (SP) at the plate. On the other side of not out of the picture. When the Saturday was a slow day over- Debbie McBride; Intermediate Key acquisitions: Masahide Ko- the ball, Verlander and Jeremy Twins’ young talent matures, es- all for the team. fences: 2nd Chelsea Levine, 4th bayashi (SP) Bonderman are one of the best pecially Phil Humber, the third The riders picked up only one Michelle Geise, 6th Maria Gubbiot- 2007 Record: 96-66 one-two punches you’re going to overall pick in 2004, they will chal- point in the Open division, three ti; Intermediate flat: 5th Michelle Cleveland returns a lineup see leading a rotation. lenge Detroit and Cleveland for more in Intermediate, and just Geise; Novice flat: 5th Maria Gub- that should be able to keep pace Detroit is riddled with ques- the division. two more in Novice. biotti; Walk/Trot/Canter: 1st Nicole with any other team in the league. tion marks. Will Dontrelle return It wasn’t until the second-to- Kovolenko Leadoff man Sizemore has the to his 22-win 2005 form, or will he 4. Chicago White Sox last class of the day that Nicole Team Total: 13 points rare ability to actually pretty the be the same pitcher who won just Key returners: Paul Konerko (1B), Kovolenko pulled off the first and ball out of the infield and Pronk 22 games in the two seasons since Jim Thome (DH), Javier Vazquez only win for the team in her class, Sunday Results is a monster. With Victor Martinez then? What will happen to Bran- (SP) bringing their point total for the Open fences: 1st Debbie McBride; batting cleanup and Ryan Garko don Inge? Does Todd Jones have Key acquisitions: Orlando Cabre- day to a mere thirteen. Open flat: 2nd Debbie McBride, set to have a major break out sea- another year left in him? Will Joel ra (SS), Octavio Dotel (RP), Nick On Sunday, the team hosted 4th Chelsea Levine; Intermedi- son, the Indians should be able Zumaya be the same pitcher he Swisher (OF/1B) their own show at Lithia Valley ate fences: 1st Maria Gubbiotti, to improve on their 811 R/178 HR was before getting injured? 2007 Record: 72-90 Farm in Factoryville. With the 2nd Chelsea Levine, 4th Michelle numbers from last year. Comple- Detroit will bounce back from Swisher, Thome, Konerko, Dye. home team advantage, the morn- Geise; Intermediate flat: 5th Mi- menting their lineup, the Tribe will a mid-season collapse and win 90 That’s a 2-3-4-5 you can build a ing got off to a great start with chelle Geise, Novice fences: 1st trot out three pitchers (Sabathia, games this season, but it won’t be lineup around, and Sox fans should back-to-back wins in Open Fences MaryElena Cassetori, 2nd Jillian Fausto Carmona, and Paul Byrd) enough to unseat Cleveland as be glad their team has done just by senior Debbie McBride and In- Cassetori; Novice flat: 1st Maria who all won 15 games last season division champions. Detroit fans that. Swisher is a highly talented termediate Fences by freshman Gubbiotti, 3rd Alysha Hoffman; en route to a 4.19 ERA and a 1.31 hungry for another champion- players who would probably sell Maria Gubbiotti. Walk/Trot: 3rd Natalie Povanda. WHIP by the starting rotation. ship better hope the Tigers get the popcorn in the stands between in- Twins MaryElena and Jillian High Point Rider: Maria Gubbiotti Joe Borowski may be a capable Wild Card. nings if you asked him too. Mark Cassetori all but swept their Nov- Team Total: 35 points closer, but he has that Armando Buehrle and Vazquez are quality ice Fences classes winning first Benitez-esque ability to give his 3. Minnesota Twins starters at the top of the rotation. and second respectively, and Ma- Debbie McBride is a senior Eng- fans and his team a heart at- Key returners: Joe Mauer (C), Jus- The bottom of Chicago’s lineup ria Gubbiotti brought the day to lish major from Scranton. tack every time he falters on the tin Morneau (1B), Francisco Liria- is not bad, but it’s no more than a successful end winning her sec- mound. No other weaknesses are no (SP) mediocre at best. The starting ro- actually evident on this Indian’s Key acquisitions: Delmon Young tation, after Vazquez, has nothing team. (OF), Livan Hernandez (SP), Carlos worth writing home about. Chica- “TENNIS” Continued from page 12 Gomez (OF) go’s bullpen looks to be inconsis- With Hafner returning to his fellow sophomore Kevin Whitman conference’s pre-season poll. 2007 Record: 79-83 tent at best. Dotel has loads of tal- 2006 form, and nothing else at third doubles. After a strong “We have a nice crop of fresh- Morneau (26) leads a lineup ent, but brings a very injury-prone changing in Cleveland’s lineup, it spring pre-season freshman Dan man that have come in and solidi- that’s as young as it is talented. arm and is a huge risk. wouldn’t be hard to imagine the Parisi worked his way into the fied the team” Melideo said. “I’m Mauer (24), Michael Cuddyer (28) Chicago, which finished only Indians winning 100 games and starting lineup at the sixth singles excited to get started and do great and Jason Kubel (25) have tremen- three games out of the cellar, challenging Boston for the Ameri- position. Sophomore Gary Ihnat things this year. Among our oth- dous upside and should be able needs to pick it up this year. They can League pennant. along with freshmen Mike Killen, er goals, knocking off Drew’s 56 to do much better than their 718 won’t finish dead last, but I don’t Tim Moore and Kevin Kelleher will conference match winning streak R/118 HR effort of last season, expect them to win any more than 2. Detroit Tigers begin the season in a reserve role. would be a nice feat to accom- which placed them at 25th and 73 or 74 games this season. Key returners: Magglio Ordonez After hosting Juniata on March plish.” 29th respectively in the MLB. De- (RF), Carlos Guillen (1B), Justin 15, the Royals will travel to Hilton Although the Landmark Con- spite losing Johan Santana, the 5. Kansas City Royals Verlander (SP) Head, South Carolina for Spring ference features some great teams Twins have a pretty solid rotation. Key returners: Alex Gordon (3B), Key acquisitions: Miguel Cabrera Break where they will participate including the favorite, Drew and Liriano is a quality starter, Her- Zack Grienke (SP), Joakim Soria (3B), Edgar Renteria (SS), Don- in a week of matches against qual- highly regarded Catholic, the Roy- nandez was an excellent pickup (RP) trelle Willis (SP) ity non-conference opponents. als have already got a taste of as a number two, and Boof Bonser Key acquisitions: Jose Guillen (OF) 2007 Record: 88-74 The team will look to play well conference play at the Goucher will provide 120+ strikeouts in the 2007 Record: 69-93 If I were to play an MLB video against these tough opponents in Invitational and are ready to prove middle of the rotation. Kauffman Stadium is a gor- game and make trades to create preparation for the all-important that they belong in the upper Joe Nathan is the only stand- geous ballpark. Grienke’s a decent a fantasy lineup, I might wind conference matches. echelon of their new conference. out in a mostly mediocre bullpen. prospect, and Guillen brings a big up with something remarkably Upsetting the second ranked With a strong showing in the fall, Liriano, capable as he may, is also bat. similar to what Detroit has put to- team in the Landmark Conference increased lineup depth and flex- returning from Tommy John sur- gether. With a batting order that is one of the team’s goals. ibility and a second year of stabil- gery. Despite featuring a strong Please see “CENTRAL” page 9 reads Curtis Granderson, Placido “The Catholic match is big. We ity with Hetsko the Royals look offensive team, the Twins play in Polanco, Cabrera, Ordonez, Gary would like to set the tone for the to surprise many teams this year. season with a signature win right The Royals kick off their spring Tip: Bring your mitt from the start,” Hetsko said. season on Parade Day, March 15, Support Your Local Sports Nerds With the opening match just when they host Landmark Confer- back to school after a few days away anticipation is ence rival Juniata College. Just a College Kid We Won’t Let You Forget spring break. high. Captain Scott Melideo gave his thoughts on the fast approach- Carl Caceres is a freshman collegekidny.blogspot.com wwlyf.wordpress.com We certainly will : ) ing new season for the Royals, communication major from Tean- who were ranked fourth in the eck, N.J.