ROCHESTER, Mich. – This Thursday and Friday, April 27-28, Oakland University Softball will look to solidify the team's first-place standing in the Horizon League against Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pennsylvania on ESPN+.
Oakland took two in their three-game #HLSB series with Cleveland State last week in Rochester, clinching onto the top spot in the Horizon League standings with two series remaining (Robert Morris and Purdue Fort Wayne).
Sydney Campbell earned Horizon League Pitcher of the Week honors for the first time this season after her 2-0 week against Cleveland State in which the Golden Grizzlies secured the series. The LaGrange, Ohio native only had one earned run in both games and aided to OU's five-inning, mercy run-rule win over CSU.
The redshirt junior has the best earned run average in the conference at 1.76 according to the Horizon League and the most wins out of all the league's pitchers with 13.
Allisa DiPrima and Reese Ruhlman lead the team in batting average with .322 and .321, respectively, putting the duo eighth and ninth in the conference rankings. Jen Krizka steps up to the plate with 26 runs batted in to lead the Golden Grizzlies, eighth in #HLSB.
Krizka's combined on-base and slugging percentage put the Joliet, Illinois native first overall in the conference with a league-best .654 on-base and second-best .457 for a total of 1.111.
As a team, the Golden Grizzlies are still triple-hitting machines with a third-overall ranking in triples per game in the entirety of NCAA Division I at .50 a game. Ruhlman has the most in the league and on the team with four, putting the senior in a tie for 14th in NCAA Division I.
Two others, Maci Brown and Krizka, rank 34th and tie for 40th in Division I for their triple-batting average as well.
Ruhlman, as painful as it has to be, is struck by pitches .27 times a game, ranking her in a tie for 34th in the country while the team ranks fourth in hit batters along with Boise State and Omaha.
SCOUTING REPORT
THE COLONIALS
Robert Morris now sits third overall in the conference coming off a 2-1 series against IUPUI in Indianapolis last weekend, holding a 10-6 conference record.
The Colonials' best batter resides in Anna Resnik with an average of .264, just ahead of Charlotte Grover with a .261. The latter of the two posts three home runs with a team-high 23 RBI.
In the circle, Dana Vatakis leads the squad with an 8-9 record and the second-best ERA in the conference at 2.38. The grad student has three saves on the year, the most in #HLSB.
The Golden Grizzlies went 1-2 against RMU last season in Rochester, dropping both games of the doubleheader before defeating the very same team in the 2022 #HLSB Championship game in come-from-behind fashion.
SYD JUST WINS, WINS, WINS
Redshirt junior pitcher, Sydney Campbell, secured her 49th career win in the circle for Oakland on March 22 in the first half of a doubleheader with IUPUI. Campbell bests Jessica Granger's record set from 2007-2009.
PICKED FIRST… AGAIN!
The Golden Grizzlies are slated to be first in the Horizon League for the 2023 season as voted on by the conference's Head Coaches back on February 8 with eight of the nine first-place votes.
STARTING AT 100
Head Coach Lauren Karn will start the 2023 campaign with 100 wins in her pocket as the all-time winningest head coach in Oakland Softball history. Prior to THE Spring Games on February 24, Karn sits at 100-104 in her five-year career.
A STORM IN THE CIRCLE
Pitcher Sydney Campbell returns to play as the reigning #HLSB Pitcher of the Year following a 2.23 earned run average with only 204 hits allowed in 864 at-bats the La Grange, Ohio native has faced. Campbell's name is littered through the OU record book as she's first in-season appearances (43) and season wins (23).
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Six freshmen join the Oakland roster in Jenna Johnston, Kayla Rodriguez, Maraina Smith, Taylor Carraway, Hailee Jenkins, and Kamryn Troyer.
