Sports Information Department – 112 Dods Hall
Phone (716) 673-3100 / Fax (716) 673-3136

CONTACT: Jerry Reilly,
Sports Information Director

DATE: Thurs., March 15, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Softball

Mazurek leads new-look Devils into season

FREDONIA, N.Y. -- There were nine freshmen on the 2004 Fredonia State softball roster. Four seasons later, only one of those players remains.

Entering her senior season this spring, Casey Mazurek (Dunkirk/Dunkirk) will be looking to add to her career pitching totals in wins (29), strikeouts (425), and inning pitched (412), all of which are already team records, this spring.

The Blue Devils open their 2007 season with a doubleheader Friday morning in the Gene Cusic Classic. They are scheduled to meet Wisconsin-Superior at 9 a.m. and Keene State at 11 a.m. at Cape Coral, Fla., and will play eight more games over the next week in Cape Coral and Fort Myers.

Mazurek is also second all-time in earned run average (1.92) and is coming off a junior season (5-11, 2.53 ERA) in which she struck out a single-season school record 161 batters in 130 innings.

Two freshmen are being challenged to pick up where Mazurek will be leaving off when she graduates in May. Andrea Cornelius (Niagara Falls) is a crafty left-hander who was All Western New York last season at Niagara-Wheatfield. Right-hander Carine Janis (Depew) is a hard-thrower who fanned 180 in one season at Depew High School.

In addition to the two freshman pitchers, nine other Blue Devils are in their first collegiate season – a first-year senior and eight other freshmen. Four of the frosh are potential starters, and several others will emerge as starters or will get significant playing time off the bench.

Of the potential starters, three are infielders: Jaime Ryan (North Chili/Churchville-Chili) at second base, Andrea DeVon (Elmira/Notre Dame) at shortstop, and Lisa Curtis (Greece/Greece Arcadia) at third base. Curtis, also a member of the Fredonia State women’s soccer team, and Ryan are speedy runners, while DeVon has power potential from the right side.

Also in the infield, Mazurek and Cornelius will also see time at first base, where sophomore Jackie Bryant (Sanborn/Niagara-Wheatfield) returns as the starter. Behind the plate, freshman Bree Crossett (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) has been pushing incumbent starter Meghan Sullivan (Derby/Lake Shore) for the No. 1 spot. Crossett will also catch when Sullivan, a hard-throwing sophomore, moves into the pitching circle in short relief.

Head coach Lorrie Corsi has also liked the pre-season infield play of freshmen Samantha Kinkema (Lake City, Mich./N. Mich. Christian) and Leigh Palmer (Union City, Pa./Union City), who rejoined the team at the end of the women’s basketball season. First-year senior K.C. Conklin (Hornell/Hornell) has a chance to break into the lineup as a corner infielder and as a bat off the bench.

In the outfield, the likely starter in center is speedy freshman Samantha Voncina (Derby), the team MVP her senior year at Lake Shore Central. Sophomore Brittany Connell (Geneva/Geneva) in the incumbent starter in left, where Janis might also see time. In right, several players are vying for time, among them Cornelius and Mazurek. Left-handed hitting freshman Malysa Mosier (Dunkirk/Dunkirk), in only her third season of organized softball, has also drilled well at the position.

Offensively, Sullivan (Angola) batted .277 as a freshman – tops among the four returning players – with good power numbers (6 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homers, .457 slugging percentage). Mazurek was the next best hitters among the quartet at .272.

The Blue Devils are picked to finished seventh in the SUNYAC Coaches’ Pre-Season Softball Poll. The top six teams qualify for the conference tournament the first weekend in May.

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