Games #30 & 31
ART U Urban Knights (10-19, 8-10 PWC) vs. Chaminade Silverswords (15-13, 11-7 PWC)
Monday, April 1, 2013 at 12:00 PM
Brisbane, CA – Mission Blue Field
Live Stats

ART U HOSTS SILVERSWORDS TO START OFF APRIL
Academy of Art University Softball comes into the month of April with a prime chance to move up in the Pacific West Conference standings. In ART U's lone home gameday amid a span of 45 days, the Urban Knights welcome Chaminade to Mission Blue Field this Monday.

FIRST PITCH
On Monday, Apr. 1, the Urban Knights play host to Chaminade in a doubleheader that will begin at 12:00 PM. Live Stats will be available for these games. Remember to follow @ARTU_Knights on Twitter and "Like" the Urban Knights on Facebook for score updates, videos, and recaps.

KNIGHT WATCH
The top of the ART U batting order continues to maintain batting averages above .300 as sophomore Haily MacDonald now leads all Urban Knights with a .368 clip. After none in 2012, MacDonald now has four triples to lead the team (3rd in PacWest, one from Ashley Lokey's ART U single-season record) along with 20 runs scored. Junior Lauren Stover, who earlier this season posted a new program record 13-game hitting streak, sports a .364 average with team-highs in doubles (5), home runs (3), and RBIs (16). Fellow junior Elyse Cordova has upped her batting average to .300 or higher on Mar. 9 and has not dipped since. She sits at .306 thus far in 2013 with 19 runs scored and 10 RBIs. Cordova is three runs away from becoming the program's all-time career runs scored leader. After delivering her fourth RBI of the year in just her 20th at-bat, senior Alyssa Hickey is now hitting .300 on the year as well.

The dynamic duo of junior Kimberly Dauer (5-10) and Haily MacDonald (3-3) have gotten all but one of their eight wins against PacWest opponents. Dauer offers a 3.81 ERA with 56 strikeouts in 90.0 innings pitched. She has all 10 of Academy of Art's complete games. MacDonald's ERA is 4.89 through 44.1 innings pitched. Sophomore Kristin Valdivia (2-1) has been ART U's top reliever with a 2.42 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 26.0 innings pitched.

SILVERSWORDS SURGING
Chaminade was faced with a difficult 1-5 start to its 2013 season, but has since gone 14-8 to even things out. Sustaining doubleheader sweeps by Hawaii Pacific and BYU-Hawaii in the early going, the Silverswords responded by taking two from the Seasiders shortly thereafter and later splitting series with Martin Methodist, Dixie State, and California Baptist. Hosting Grand Canyon for four games in mid-March was no easy task, but CUH did come away with a 6-5 victory in the final contest. That win sparked Chaminade's current nine-game streak which included taking a pair from BYU-Hawaii, four from Dominican, and another two from Holy Names on Saturday. The Silverswords play ART U as part of a six-day stretch that features 10 games against PacWest Bay Area opponents. On the offensive side of the softball, the one-two punch of Rayna Strom-Okimoto (.385, 4 HR, 6 2B, 16 RBI, 16 R) and Shannan Hokama (.349, 2 HR, 17 RBI, 13 R) has been the driving force for the Swords. Pitching duties have been split between Brett Aspel (7-7, 3.54 ERA, 101.2 IP, 45 K) and Kaitlyn Watanabe (8-5, 4.78 ERA, 79.0 IP, 17 K). Despite CUH's momentum coming in, Academy of Art holds an 8-2 advantage in the historical series with their Hawaiian opponents.

PIONEERS PUSH PAST KNIGHTS IN DOUBLEHEADER
Out at Pioneer Field for a matchup with Cal State East Bay, ART U Softball sustained a pair of heartbreakers as two ballgames tied late both turned into 3-2 victories for the Pioneers. The Wednesday non-conference doubleheader started with Academy of Art coming back against an early CSUEB lead, but game one belonged to the home team after a walk-off single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning. A pitchers' duel early, the second contest was tied 1-1 in the fifth though East Bay pulled off the 3-2 win via a two-run rally.

LOOKING AHEAD
For the first time in program history, the Urban Knights will next be competing in Cal State Stanislaus' Tournament of Champions. The pool-play tournament begins with three games (Western Washington, Azusa Pacific, Montana State-Billings) on Friday, Apr. 5 and will include a minimum of three more before the weekend is over.