Sports News: Spring 2005

Thursday, May 12, 2005

MORAVIAN’ S BORTZ & HENNESSY NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAMS

BETHLEHEM, PA --- Senior shortstop Heather Bortz (Allentown, PA/Parkland HS) and junior pitcher Meagan Hennessy (Freehold, NJ/Freehold HS) have been named to the 2005 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District II College Division Softball Teams selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Bortz and Hennessy were first team selections.

By making the All-District First Team, Bortz and Hennessy are now forwarded onto the national ballot to try for ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American® accolades, which will be announced on Thursday, June 2nd.

To be eligible for ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® honors, a student-athlete must maintain at least a 3.20 grade-point average, be a sophomore, junior or senior and be a starter or significant reserve.

The College Division is made up of all the NCAA Division II and III Schools in the nation as well as all NAIA schools. Student-athletes from NCAA Division I schools are named to the University Division Teams. District II is made up of schools from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The duo has helped the Greyhounds win the team’s fifth straight Commonwealth Conference Tournament title and sixth straight Commonwealth Conference Championship and garner the program’s eighth consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament appearance last weekend by winning the 2005 Commonwealth Conference Tournament. Moravian, which is 34-6 overall and tied for 19th in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association Top 25 Poll, will be in action this coming weekend at an NCAA Division III Regional being hosted by Salisbury (MD) University. The Greyhounds, who are seeded second in the five-team regional, will play third seeded Roanoke (VA) College at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, May 13th.

Bortz, who was the Commonwealth Conference Rookie of the Year in 2002 and the Commonwealth Conference Player of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2005, earned a spot on the All-Commonwealth Conference First Team for the fourth straight year, and she leads Moravian in hitting this spring with a .419 batting average. Bortz has a team high 54 hits, 25 runs, five doubles, five triples and 20 RBIs. Bortz has also added two sacrifice flies, five stolen bases and 12 walks. Bortz, a two-time All-American, has become the first player in school history to reach 200 career hits and has 245 in her career. She also leads the team with 70 assists in the field. Bortz currently owns the school career records for runs scored at 132 and batting average at .445.

Hennessy, who was named the Commonwealth Conference Co-Pitcher of the Year and Rookie of the Year in 2003 and Pitcher of the Year in 2004 & 2005 while being named to the All-Commonwealth Conference First Team each season, is 27-4 in the circle this season, a school record for wins, with a 0.48 ERA, a school record 17 shutouts, three saves, three no-hitters, 275 strikeouts, all season school records, and just 105 hits, 38 walks and 26 runs (15 earned) allowed in 221 innings of action. Hennessy has already broken the Moravian career records for strikeouts with 586, innings pitched with 556.0, shutouts with 36 and wins with 65.

Bortz and Hennessy will now try to become the 28th and 29th ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Americans in Moravian history and the 23rd & 24th in the last 12 years.