College softball and baseball preview

Lehman softball 

First-year head coach John McKenna will look to lead the Lancers to their first winning season in more than eight years.

The Lancers went 4-8 in conference play last season with McKenna as an assistant, but will return their entire infield led by junior utility player Kyala Cruz.

Cruz, a second team All-CUNYAC selection, hit .400 last season and led the team with 33 RBIs and a .670 slugging percentage. Jona Kerluku, Linda Resto, Ashley Williams, Meghan Bravo and Arlette Martinez will also make up the infield on a team that is not satisfied with last season.

“Our infield is our strength,” McKenna said. “Our outfield is coming along, but I expect to be led by those six young ladies [in the infield].”

As a pitcher last season, Bravo went 8-11 with a 7.05 ERA in 92.1 innings pitched. Martinez, who also plays second base and outfield, will take over the second pitching spot for the first time in her collegiate career.

Freshmen Karina Lora and Bianca Osorio are expected to contribute as outfielders right away. Osorio won her league championship and was named Most Valuable Player during her time at KIPP NYC College Prep high school.

McKenna won’t put a number on the amount of wins he expects his team to get, but said he would love to have a .500 season in his first year.

“We worked so hard last year as a staff,” McKenna said. “Even though I was an assistant, we went in with our knowledge of travel ball, and we gave everything we could. The girls are making leaps and bounds from where we were last year.” 

Lehman baseball

James Cisco joins Lehman as head coach after the team went 2-8 in conference play last season. While this will be his first time coaching at the collegiate level, he is no rookie to championship baseball. 

Cisco started for Fordham during the team’s 1998 championship season and still ranks among school’s all-time leaders in hits.  

He will guide a veteran pitching staff that includes transfer Matt Brown, the CUNYAC pitcher of the year last season at Queensborough Community College.