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Lehigh Weekend: Softball Tries to Navigate the "Group of Death"

When it comes to Lehigh's spring sports, admittedly I don't follow them as closely as I do the winter sports (or, of course, football). But I do tune in when Lehigh's baseball or softball teams qualify for the postseason, and Lehigh softball is down in Gainesville, Florida to play in the Gainesville NCAA regional.

Not only this year's team playing against an incredibly challenging regional, the Mountain Hawks, led by senior P/OF Lisa Sweeney's powerful pitching, could face the No. 1 team in the nation (Florida) and faced off against a powerful Big XII team that was the subject of Lehigh softball's greatest upset ever - Texas A&M. Florida A&M rounds off the bracket - who aren't playing far from their home campus. "Group of Death" indeed.

While I was escaping from the world on Friday, Lehigh lost a heartbreaking 1-0 game to TAMU, where Sweeney only gave up four hits but one was a solo home run in the first inning to Erin Glasco that was the difference in the game:

“I thought that we honestly played toe-to-toe with them the entire time,” said Lehigh head coach Fran Troyan. “We had told the team beforehand that we felt the two teams were very evenly well-matched. Our team played very well; very solid defense. Lisa (Sweeney) pitched well and we had a couple opportunities against a team like Texas A&M and that’s all you can ask for. Hopefully we’ll take care of business tomorrow and maybe we’ll get another chance at Texas A&M or somebody else.”


Today Lehigh hopes to advance in the lower bracket against Florida A&M at 3:30 pm. Audio of the game will be broadcast free over the internet; it's days like today when I'm glad I have a laptop: yardwork will be made easier with the game on in the background.

[EDIT: Congrats to the Ladies, who beat Texas A&M again 3-2 to get a chance to knock off the No. 1 team in the nation on Sunday. They lost 9-0 after fighting hard on Sunday -but bow out with heads held high. Congratulations!]
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ngineer said…
The Lehigh Women have much to be proud...Went farther than any PL school in history and really played toe to toe with the #1 team in the country for 5 innings. They had a great season, and the seniors had a great run. Note a good number of underclassmen seeing starting time, so the future should remain bright, though replacing Sweeney will not be easy.
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