CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- UMBC senior Ashley Gray (Pasadena, Md./Northeast/Delaware State) and sophomore Amanda Fefel (Baltimore, Md./Catonsville) took home the America East softball player and pitcher of the week, respectively.
Pitcher/first baseman Gray went 3-for-6 in a rain-shortened week for the Retrievers, hitting her first home run of the season and driving in three runs. She also scored twice in two games. Gray went 2-for-3 with a solo home run in the first game of the George Washington double-header, accounting for the Retrievers' lone run of the contest. Then in game two, her lone hit was a two-run single in UMBC's four-run fifth inning.
Fefel pitched brilliantly in her lone appearance of the week, picking up UMBC's first shutout of the season while going the distance in the second game of the George Washington double-header. She allowed just six hits and one walk while striking out five. The sophomore hurler improved to 2-0 on the season.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (3-2, 0-0 America East) was out of action last week...
The Great Danes will return to action on March 14 at the Winthrop/adidas
Invitational in Rock Hill, S.C., where they will take on Fairfield, UNC
Wilmington, UNC A&T and Ohio.
Maine
(0-17, 0-0 America East) dropped all seven of its games this past week ... in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader
versus Central Michigan, Whitney Spangler (Canton, Ohio/Central Catholic H.S.)
and Kristen Calvetti (Milford, N.H./Milford H.S.) each homered, but it wasn’t
enough as the Black Bears dropped a 6-5 decision in eight innings ... eight of
Maine’s 17 losses this season have come by a run or less ... in Friday’s 4-3
extra innings loss to Jacksonville, Teren Hall (Bucksport, Maine/Bucksport
H.S.) doubled in all three runs for the Black Bears ... Maine returns to action
this week as it takes part in the Hawaii Spring Fling Tournament in Honolulu ...
the Black Bears will face major conference opponents who are nationally ranked,
including Texas Tech, Hawaii and North Carolina.
UMBC (3-7, 0-0 America East) split a
doubleheader with George Washington on March 4, losing the first game, 3-1,
before winning the second, 5-0... The Retrievers’ weekend Dawg Pound Tournament
was rained out... Freshman Stephanie Weigman (Elkridge, Md./Archbishop Spalding)
pitched her first career complete game in the opener and allowed just three
runs on eight hits... Senior Ashley Gray (Pasadena,
Md./Northeast/Delaware State) hit her first
home run of the season, a solo shot, to account for UMBC’s lone run of the
game... Sophomore Amanda Fefel (Baltimore, Md./Catonsville) was
brilliant on the mound in game two, allowing just six hits and one walk while
striking out five in the complete game shutout, UMBC’s first of the season... The
Retrievers took control of the game with a four-run fifth, getting five hits ?
all singles ? in the inning... Gray and Fefel were each 3-for-6 in the
doubleheader, while Gray drove in a team-best three runs... UMBC hosts Howard in
a doubleheader on March 12, then heads down I-95 for the Maryland Terrapin
Spring Break Invitational next weekend... The Retrievers will take on Lehigh, Valparaiso, St. Peter’s,
Niagara and the host Terps in the tournament.
Stony Brook went 0-2 at the Maryland Invitational... Three games were
cancelled due to inclement weather... Junior Marissa Fleury led the Seawolves
with a .429 average for the weekend... Junior Molly Kestranek drove in a
team-high two RBI... Senior Sara Cerrone hit her second home run of the season.
Vermont (2-5, 0-0 America East) was scheduled
to play in the Georgia Tech Classic over the weekend but due to weather the
tournament was cancelled ... The Catamounts picked up a pair of games though on
Sunday when they faced Mercer and Georgia Tech, both at Mercer ... Vermont fell
to the host Bears 4-1, as all four runs were unearned ... Senior Rachelle
Eloschuk (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Grandin) had Vermont’s only two hits of the
game and scored the lone run ... Senior Aimee Kern (Wrentham, Mass./King Philip)
was the tough-luck loser as she went the distance striking out four and walking
only one while scattering five hits ... In the second game Vermont jumped out to
a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, as junior Alison Daggett (Fort Collins,
Colo./Fort Collins) had the big hit with a two-run homerun ... The Cats were one
out away from victory when Georgia Tech tied it, sending it to extra innings
where they would come from behind again to earn the win ... Vermont returns to action tomorrow as the Cats
will now play two more against Mercer with the first game starting at 5:00pm.
UVM is then at Winthrop on Wednesday for a doubleheader (2 p.m.).