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Wednesday, May 07, 2003

By Phil Axelrod, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

California (24-6), making its 14th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Division III softball championships, will meet Shaw, N.C. (30-12) tomorrow at Shippensburg in the first round of the double-elimination Mid-Atlantic Region.

IUP (25-16) will meet Kutztown in the other opening round.

Top-seed Shippensburg and No. 2 Bloomsburg have byes in the first round.

California features Becky Mezyk, (Baldwin), who has a .419 batting average and is 11-1 with a 1.98 earned run average, and Amber Riegel, who is 11-4 with a 1.87 ERA and has a team-high 23 RBIs.

Division III softball

Bethany, ninth in the USA Today/National Coaches Association poll for its highest in-season ranking, will take a 31-6 record and school-record 21-game winning streak into the NCAA tournament. The Bison, led by the senior Schafer twins from Perry, meet Alma, Mich. (30-4) Friday in the first round of the double-elimination Central Region at Muskingum. Amy Schafer averages .396 with 22 RBIs and Rachael Shafer has a 12-3 record with an 0.87 ERA to go with a .390 batting average, 3 home runs and 22 RBIs.

NAIA softball

Top-seed Geneva (42-10), regular-season champion of the American Mideast Conference, will be the host of the double-elimination NAIA Region 9 tournament starting tomorrow. Geneva received a bye in the first round. Pitcher Jen Picard, a sophomore from Bethel Park who has 15 consecutive victories and a 21-3 record, is expected to be available after missing three games last week with a sprained ankle.

Division II baseball

Slippery Rock (41-8), winner of 14 in a row and ranked 10th in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll and ninth by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers, is top-seeded in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament tomorrow through Saturday at Boyertown.

Division III baseball

Top seed and host Penn State Behrend (31-10) will meet No. 4 Misericordia (21-13) and No. 3 Waynesburg (22-16-1) will play No. 2 Gwynedd-Mercy (24-13-1) Saturday in the opening round of the single-elimination ECAC Southern Championship.

Tracking a record

St. Francis' P.J. Alouise, a senior from Riverside High School, set a school record and qualified for the NCAA Division I regional championships and IC4A championships with a throw of 226-2 3/4 in the javelin to finish first at the Slippery Rock Invitational. A three-time Northeast Conference champion, Alouise ranks 13th in the country.

Teed off

Freshman Justin Tulk is the first golfer from Grove City to qualify for the NCAA Division III championships. He will compete in the championships May 12-15 at Dornoch Golf Club in Delaware, Ohio.

Washington and Jefferson's Lynne Szarnicki was medalist with an 89-39 -- 128 for 27 holes, and Grove City won the women's PAC team title by 12 strokes at Crispin (W.Va.) Golf Course.

Calling it quits

Rhonda Cooley resigned as softball coach and assistant volleyball coach at the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg, citing personal reasons.