Campus clippings: Belle Vernon's Slagus leads Bucknell to NCAA Tournament

Tournament MVP Kaitlyn Slagus and her teammates are going to the Big Dance.

Slagus, a 6-foot-2 senior forward, scored a game-high 23 points to power the top-seeded Bucknell women’s basketball team to a 66-54 victory over No. 2 American in the Patriot League championship game Sunday in Lewisburg.

Bucknell (28-5) is the 12th seed in the Greensboro Region and will take on No. 5 Florida State (23-8) at 4 p.m. Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tourament.

The Bison will play in the tournament for the second time in three years. A five-player senior class, led by Slagus, has 102 wins for the program. That group scored the team’s first 23 points against American.

Slagus (Belle Vernon) finished 9 of 14 from the field with seven rebounds and four blocks.

The Bison seniors were 56-6, including a 15-1 record this season, at Sojka Pavilion in their careers.

Women’s basketball

IUP: Senior point guard Carolyn Appleby was named to the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) All-Atlantic Region second team. She also made the All-PSAC West first team.

Appleby (Greensburg Central Catholic) scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds to help power IUP to a 67-60 victory over Bowie State in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional opener in Glenville, W. Va. She added 15 points in a 66-58 win over Virginia Union to vault IUP into the regional final, where they downed nemsis Cal (Pa.), 68-60. Appleby had 24 points in that win, which propelled the Crimson Hawks (29-3) back into the Elite Eight.

Softball

Slippery Rock: Redshirt freshman Adeline Nicholson (Southmoreland) had two hits all of last season. She surpassed that in a few games already this year. Nicholson is in an early groove at the plate for the Rock (6-11). During a recent seven-game stretch in Clermont, Fla., she hit .500 (10 for 20) with two home runs, four doubles, a triple and seven RBIs.

Marist: Redshirt junior third baseman Claire Oberdorf (Greensburg Salem) saw her first action of the season and produced a run-scoring single in a 1-0 win over Farleigh Dickinson.

Oberdorf was an All-MAAC second-team selection last season after she hit .290 with four home runs, 27 runs and 21 RBIs in 54 games.

Mt. Aloysius: Sophomore first baseman/catcher Lydia DeFazio (Penn-Trafford) has started every game for the Mounties (8-3) and is hitting .324 (11 for 34) with a team-best 14 RBIs.

Penn: Freshman outfielder Emma Nedley (Penn-Trafford) is batting .313 with a team-leading three home runs and six RBIs for the Quakers (7-8, 1-2). She also leads the team in total bases with 27.

Penn State: Freshman pitcher Bailey Parshall (Belle Vernon) is 5-7 so far this season with a 2.20 ERA and 103 strikeouts for the Nittany Lions (13-12). Parshall led the WPIAL in strikeouts the last two seasons.

Pitt-Johnstown: UPJ (5-5) once again will rely on a large local contingent this season. The all-sophomore group goes around the horn. The lineup features shortstop Olivia Porter (Southmoreland), third baseman Bree Ginther (Penn-Trafford), second baseman Ali Belgiovane (Hempfield), catcher Stacey Walling (Hempfield), and pitcher Ashley Pagliei (Latrobe).

Seton Hill: A doubleheader-sweep of Clarion (scores of 12-4 and 11-4) moved the Griffins’ record to 11-7. Senior Brooke Bower went 4 for 8 with three RBIs and four runs scored, and senior Devin Terry also had four hits and drove in three.

Baseball

Chatham: In six games, sophomore Ryan Shawley (Latrobe) has three RBIs and two runs scored. He is 0-2 as a pitcher in two appearances tallying 8 1/3 innings.

Seton Hill: The Griffins came a long way back to score a thrilling home victory Sunday over Millersville.

Junior Austin Braendel delivered a walk-off home run to give Seton Hill (8-8) a 9-8 win. Braendel also had an inside-the-park homer in the seventh as the Griffins cut the deficit to 7-6. He had three RBIs.

Redshirt senior Nick Stotler, freshman Isaiah DiAndreth (Hempfield) and Braendel had three hits each, and junior Tommy Pellis (Greensburg Central Catholic) homered in the win, which ended Millersville’s 10-game winning streak.

Pellis is hitting .391 with five home runs and 17 RBIs. Stotler is batting .375 with six doubles and 10 RBIs and 15 runs, and DiAndreth is .290 with 12 RBIs.

Pellis was named the PSAC West Athlete of the Week.

Men’s lacrosse

Saint Vincent: Senior Jeremy Kennedy became the Bearcats’ all-time-leading goal-scorer in a 26-8 victory over Medaille. Kennedy has 150 goals, passing the previous mark of 146 set by Ian Poole in 2006.

Kennedy also became the fifth player in program history to reach the 200-point mark. He has 210 points, third all-time in the program.

His 64 goals last season also were a school record.

Kennedy was named the PAC Offensive Player of the Week.