CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- With a 6-1 record last week, the Hartford Hawks swept the America East weekly softball awards. Junior outfielder Amanda Sais (Tustin, Calif./Tustin) earned the player of the week, sophomore pitcher Brittney Stratton (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) captured pitcher honors and outfielder Lauren Kamena brought home the rookie award for the week ending March 23.
Sais batted .455 with 10 runs batted in over seven games last week, helping the Hawks go 6-1 and extend their winning streak to 10 games. The junior hit safely in six of the seven games and completed two three-hit games against Colgate and Fairleigh Dickinson. Sais also had a pair of stolen bases on the week.
Stratton went 4-0 in four appearances, earning a 1.17 ERA. In her 24 innings of work, she allowed 15 hits, and just three for extra bases. Stratton struck out 16 batters, walked eight and allowed six runs, four earned. She went the distance in eight innings against Lafayette, striking out eight.
Kamena wins her first award after batting a team-high .500 with eight RBI over seven games last week. The rookie went 2-for-2 with a double and five RBI in the win over Columbia. She then hit her first career home run in the win over Colgate. Kamena recorded a hit in five of the seven games and drove in a run in three of them.
Team Notebooks:
UAlbany (6-8 overall record, 0-0 in America East) played five games at the
Georgia Spring Fling over the weekend... The Great Danes went winless in three
games versus Kent
State and two against the
host Bulldogs... Senior Amber Maisonet (Newburgh,
N.Y./Newburgh Free
Academy) led the team
over the weekend, hitting .375 for the weekend... Maisonet recorded six hits,
including two doubles and her first home run of the season, scoring two runs
and driving in another two... She also recorded one stolen base and totaled a
team-high .688 slugging percentage... Senior Leanne Tillman (Pyuallup, Wash./Emerald
Ridge) also knocked her first home run of the season... Sophomore Michelle
Connors (Clifton Park,
N.Y./Shenendehowa) finished with three hits and two RBI, while classmate Nicole
Kothe (Middletown,
N.Y./Minisink Valley) had two hits, including a double, and two runs scored... In
the circle, sophomore Leah McIntosh (Whitby,
Ontario/Sinclair) started three
games for the Great Danes, striking out 17 opposing batters in two
complete-game performances... Freshman Brittany Rose (Schenectady, N.Y./Scenectady) made three
appearances in relief for UAlbany, fanning four and allowing three earned runs
in 5.1 innings of work... The Great Danes will play a doubleheader at Kennesaw State
on Tuesday before returning to Albany for their
home opener, taking on crosstown-rival Siena
in a doubleheader on Thursday starting at 2:30 p.m... UAlbany will host its first
America East Conference series with Binghamton
on Saturday and Sunday.
The Boston
University softball team (8-10, 0-0) were
not in action last week after its home opener against cross-town rival Boston College
was canceled due to impending weather... The Terriers will return to action this
week with back-to-back doubleheaders... First, they will travel to Central
Connecticut for a twinbill on Wednesday, March 26 and will follow it up with
their home opener vs. St. Peter’s on Thursday.
Binghamton (2-13, 0-0) was idle last week.
Hartford
(11-2, 0-0) went 6-1 last week and extended its winning streak to 10 games, the longest in
head coach Todd Randall’s 12-year tenure with the team. The Hawks went 8-1
overall at the Rebel Spring Games, outscoring opponents by a 57-13 margin...
Sophomore Brittney Stratton (Staten Island,
N.Y./Tottenville) went 4-0 in the circle for the week to improve to 7-0 on the
season. She threw 24.0 innings and allowed only four earned runs, good enough
for a 1.17 ERA for the week... Freshmen Lauren Kamena led the Hawks at the plate
last week, batting .500 with eight RBI over the seven games. She went 2-for-2
with a double and five RBI in the win over Columbia and hit her first career homer in
the win over Colgate... Sophomore Amanda Sais batted .455 with 10 RBI and hit
safely in six of the seven games. She went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a
career-high six RBI against Colgate. The 10 RBI were as many as she had all of
last season... Hartford
plays its home and America East opener against UMBC this weekend. The Hawks and
Retrievers will play two games on Saturday, March 29 at 1 p.m. and the final
game on Sunday, March 30 at noon.
Maine
(0-26, 0-0) dropped a tough two games to the Providence College
Friars on Saturday...The Black Bears lost the first game 10-3, but nearly beat
the Friars in the second game as they came back from a 6-3 deficit in the fifth
inning by scoring three runs, the Friars scored one in the bottom of the inning
which proved to be the difference...Freshman Terren Hall (Bucksport,
Maine/Bucksport) continues to have a solid rookie season, hitting a homerun and
knocking in two runs in the first game against Providence...Hall is second on the
team in homeruns (3) and first in doubles (4)...Whitney Spangler (Canton,
Ohio/Central Catholic) and Alexis Souhlaris (Derry, N.H./Pinkerton Academy)
each had two hits in the second game against Providence...Spangler knocked in two
runs while Souhlaris also knocked in a run...Erin Iandoli (Worcester, Mass./Notre
Dame Academy) had a great doubleheader, going 4-for-6 with two RBI and a
double...Ashley Waters (Amesbury, Mass./Amesbury) had two hits over the weekend,
improving her batting average to a team-leading .321...Waters also leads the team
in homeruns (5) and slugging percentage (.524)...Maine continues play this
Thursday with a doubleheader against Harvard followed by games on Saturday and
Sunday against Stony Brook.
UMBC
(9-13, 0-0) went 2-3 at the UMBC Spring Classic with wins over St.
Francis (Pa.) and Mount St. Mary’s, and losses
to both teams, as well as Niagara... In the
first game against the Red Flash, senior shortstop Dana Shepherd (Columbia, Md./Oakland
Mills) hit the game-winning two-run homer in the top of the seventh to give the
Retrievers the 3-2 victory... Freshman Stephanie Weigman (Elkridge,
Md./Archbishop Spalding) picked up the victory after pitching 4.1 scoreless
innings in relief, allowing just two hits while striking out seven... In the next
game, Weigman retired the first 10 batters she faced and took a shutout into
the sixth but allowed four runs (three earned) in the inning and suffered the
4-1 loss... Shepherd notched her 200th career hit against Niagara,
a double in the first inning, making her just the sixth Retriever ever to reach
that milestone... UMBC lost to the Purple Eagles, 7-6... Weigman again took a
shutout into the sixth inning against Mount St. Mary’s in bracket play, but
this time she held on for the 6-2 win, pitching the complete game and striking
out seven batters... The Retrievers could not get anything going offensively
against St. Francis in the championship game, falling 6-0... Shepherd, Weigman
and sophomore Amanda Fefel (Baltimore, Md./Catonsville) were named to the All-Tournament Team... Shepherd
went 9-for-18 on the weekend and slugged .833... After struggling through the
first month of the season, hitting just .146, she raised her batting average
more than 100 points in three days... Fefel has reached base in all 22 contests
this season, and she leads the Retrievers with a .379 batting average and a
.440 on-base percentage... The Retrievers play doubleheaders against Towson and
Bucknell on Tuesday and Wednesday this week before heading to Hartford for a
three-game series on America East opening weekend.
Stony Brook (9-9-1,
0-0) started the week off with a 8-5 win over Monmouth... Second game of the
doubleheader against Monmouth was called in the fifth inning due to darkness,
ending in a 2-2 tie... The Seawolves swept a doubleheader against Yale,
outscoring them by a combined score of 11-4... Hosted the Stony Brook
Invitational and went 1-3 over the weekend against Darmouth and Quinnipiac...
Stony Brook was led offensively by Vicki Kavitsky who hit .381 in 21 plate
appearances and stole four bases... Freshman Colleen Matthes picked up her first
save of her career.
Vermont (5-12, 0-0) went
2-0 on the week, sweeping a road doubleheader at Delaware State on Friday ... The
Cats got solid pitching performances from senior Aimee Kern (Wrentham,
Mass./King Philip) and freshman Jocelyn Abaray (Acushnet, Mass./New Bedford) ...
Kern threw a complete game, four-hit shutout to lead the Cats in the opener 3-0
and Abaray went the distance in the second game, a 10-2 victory, scattering six
hits ... In the opener Vermont recorded all the runs it would need in the top of
the third on an error and run scoring triple from senior Elena Rizza (Palo
Alto, Calif./Palo Alto), in the first ever meeting between the two teams ... Kern
moved into first place all-time in school history in innings pitched, passing
Katie Quinn ’92 and now has 541.2 for her career ... The Catamounts put the
second game away by exploding for four runs in both the fifth and sixth
innings, as the game would be called due to the eight-run rule after the sixth
... Freshman Laura Stagliano (Voorhees, N.J./Eastern Regional) had a big game by
going 2-for-2 with three RBI and two runs scored, while Kern was 2-for-3 with
three RBI ... Vermont returns to action on
Saturday when the Cats open America East play at Boston University for a
three-game set ... The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at
1:00pm and a single game on Sunday (12:00pm).