Boston University's Chiya Louie (Seattle, Wash./Ingraham) and Maine's Ashley Waters (Amesbury, Mass./Amesbury) have been named America East Co-Player of the Week award. Sarah Hoffman (Commack, N.Y./Commack) of Stony Brook receives America East Pitcher of the Week honor, while Boston University's Rachel Hebert (Humble, Texas/ Humble) takes home the America East Rookie of the Week award. The awards were announced Monday (March 5).
Louie batted .556 over six games at the Georgria Tech Buzz Classic, to help guide her team to a 4-2 record and finish third out of the 25 teams in the tournament. She had six RBIs in a 7-5 win over Iowa and then followed up with a game-high two RBIs versus Georgia Southern. Against Gerdner-Webb Louie got the Terriers on the scoreboard with a home run, another home run in the sixth inning helped the Terriers pull away from Indiana State. She completed her impressive weekend with a game-high three hits against Dartmouth. She now leads the team in batting average (.419) and is nine home runs shy of tying the school record for home runs.
Waters batted .733 this past week (11-for-15) and drove in seven runs for the Black Bears. She has driven in three runs or more in three of Maine's last five contests. She belted a grand slam in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader sweep over IPFW.
Hoffman went a perfect 3-0 at the Florida International University Blue-Gold Tournament. She threw two shutouts and allowed just two runs in 18 innings of work.
Hebert hit two home runs on the weekend. She has a batting average of .273 with six RBI's.
TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTEBOOKS
Albany Great Danes
Albany (4-3, 0-0 America East) opened up the season with a southern swing, splitting a doubleheader at Stetson and winning three out of five at the UCF Tournament... Junior outfielder Amber Maisonet (Newburgh, N.Y./Newburgh) led the Great Danes, batting .400 with eight hits, four runs scored and three RBI... Maisonet’s triple led to the first run scored in UAlbany’s 3-2 victory over Alabama State, and she recorded three RBI on two hits with two runs scored in a 13-3 rout of Boston U. on the final day of the Golden Knights’ tournament... Freshman right-hander Leah McIntosh (Whitby, Ontario/Sinclair) earned three of the Great Danes’ four wins last week... McIntosh, who has a team-best 1.32 ERA, struck out 18 batters across 13.2 innings of work, allowing just two earned runs... She was the winning pitcher against Stetson and Alabama State, and earned the team’s only shutout in a 6-0 win over George Mason, fanning a career-best nine batters... Senior infielder Kelly Ogden (Pine Bush, N.Y./Pine Bush) recorded a team-high seven RBI last week, going 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts, and hitting .304 with two home runs... The Great Danes are heading to Rock Hill, S.C. to participate in the Winthrop Tournament, starting on March 9.
Binghamton Bearcats
Binghamton (0-5, 0-0 America East) opened up its season at the East Carolina Pirate Clash this past weekend... It marked the debut of first-year head coach Ali Brian... the Bearcats head to the Norfolk State Dixie Classic this coming weekend.
Boston U. Terriers
The Terriers (7-4, 0-0 America East) went 4-2 over the weekend, picking up key wins over two 2006 NCAA Tournament teams, Iowa and Georgia Southern... They finished tied for third out of 25 teams... Senior Chiya Louie (Seattle, Wash./Ingraham) hit .556 for the weekend, with four home runs and 12 RBI and now leads the team with a .419 batting average... The Terriers started off with Louie’s six RBI, as the team defeated Iowa, 7-5, and Georgia Southern, 6-0, on Friday in the opening day... Sophomore pitcher Cassidi Hardy (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter) went 4-2 over the weekend... On day two, Boston U. dropped a 2-1 decision to Gardner-Webb, then rebounded with an 11-10 come-from-behind victory over Dartmouth... Freshman Rachel Hebert (Humble, Texas/Humble) provided the heroics in the Dartmouth win with a game-high four RBI and a three-run home run... Boston U. is now 6-3 on the season... Against Gardner-Webb, senior starter Brittany Detwiler (Souderton, Pa./Souderton Area) pitched three scoreless innings, striking out four batters and walking only two and then Hardy stepped up to the mound in the fourth inning and pitched the rest of the way, striking out four and allowing two runs... The team never trailed in a 10-5 victory over Indiana State on Sunday morning but later dropped a 5-4 extra-inning decision to Radford to finish third out of 25 teams in the Georgia Tech Buzz Classic.
Hartford Hawks
Hartford (1-5, 0-0 America East) started the 2007 season by going 1-5 at the Charleston Southern Tournament over the weekend... The Hawks picked up their first win of the year by a 2-0 final over Providence College... Freshman Rachel Clonick (Hilton, N.Y./Hilton) had a solo homer and an RBI triple in the game while classmates Brittney Stratton (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) and Gina Massaro (Havertown, Pa./Archbishop Prendergast) combined for the shutout... Massaro threw the final three innings and recorded the first collegiate victory of her career... Clonick played in all six games and batted .467 for the tournament with two homers, four runs scored and four RBI... She was also named to the all-tournament team... Senior Nikki Thompson (West Seneca, N.Y./John F. Kennedy) hit her 15th career home run while in South Carolina, tying her for third-most ever at the school. She needs just three more round trippers to tie Michele Juliano (1990-93) for the school record... Hartford will next travel to Kissimmee, FL for the Rebel Spring Games... The Hawks play the first of 10 games at the tournament on Sunday, March 11 against Lafayette and Butler.
Maine Black Bears
Maine (6-3, 0-0 America East) went 3-1 this past week, including a doubleheader sweep of IPFW on Saturday (16-1, 10-9)... The Black Bears split their pair of games on Sunday, including an 8-5 win over Detroit and a 3-2 loss to Western Carolina... Maine has won six of its last seven games after opening the season with a pair of losses... Sophomore second baseman Ashley Waters (Amesbury, Mass./Amesbury H.S.) batted .733 for the week and drove in seven runs... She belted a grand slam in the first game of Saturday’s sweep over IPFW... She has driven in 10 runs in Maine’s last 10 games ... Jenna Balent (Conifer, Colo./Conifer H.S.) won all three games for Maine this week to run her streak to five-straight wins and her overall record to 5-1.
UMBC Retrievers
UMBC (0-0, 0-0 America East) has met bad luck with the weather in the opening weeks of the season, as the scheduled season-opening Longwood Tournament was cancelled due to snow and double-headers against Mount St. Mary’s, George Washington and La Salle have been postponed... The Retrievers will open their season on Tuesday, March 6, when they travel to George Washington... UMBC will host Delaware in a double-header the next day and will hold the UMBC Dawg Pound Tournament over the weekend, welcoming Howard, Bucknell and St. Francis (Pa.) to UMBC Softball Stadium... The Retrievers return three of five all-conference players from last season, including America East Player of the Year Melanie Denischuk (Poway, Calif./Hugh Sutherland (Carstairs, Alberta)/Indian River CC/Auburn)... Denischuk set new school records for home runs (24), RBI (82), total bases (161) and slugging percentage (.880) in 2006... Denischuk led the nation in RBI per game last season... The senior first baseman has been named to the USA Softball Player of the Year Watch List... Also returning in all-conference first team third baseman Reilly Ward (Olney, Md./Sherwood), who ranks among UMBC’s all-time top 10 in many offensive categories... Shortstop Dana Shepherd (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills) was an all-conference second team member in 2006.
Stony Brook Seawolves
Stony Brook (6-3, 0-0 America East) went 3-2 in its games last weekend at the FIU Blue-Gold Tournament... In Game One, Stony Brook came back for three runs in the bottom of the seventh to beat UNC-Wilmington, 3-2... Kelsi Fanelli had the game winning RBI as the Seawolves won their second game in their last at bat... In the second game of the day, Christina Voth threw seven innings and gave up two runs but Stony Brook fell 2-1... Stony Brook split with Mount St. Mary's on Day 2... Stony Brook, once again, came back in its last at-bat to win, 6-4... Kendall Blumenthal hit her first collegiate home run and Stony Brook scored five times in the seventh inning... Sarah Hoffman threw four shutout innings in relief to pick up her third win of the season... Christina Voth threw a complete game-six hitter but Stony Brook fell 2-1... In the consolation game against FIU, Hoffman once again shut the door on the opponent's offense, allowing just four hits for her fourth win of the season... Ashley Westphal and Kelsi Fanelli each had RBIs in the victory... Stony Brook travels to Moraga, California for the St. Mary's (CA) tournament... It faces Utah Valley State on Friday afternoon.
Vermont Catamounts
Vermont notes coming soon.