CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- University of Hartford junior outfielder Amanda Sais (Tustin, Calif./Tustin) earned her second America East Softball Player of the Week Award this season with late-game clutch hitting last week. Stony Brook sophomore hurler Alyssa Struzenberg (Cooper City, Fla./Cooper City) also received her second weekly honor of the season, the pitching accolade for the week ending April 20, while Boston University freshman second baseman Melanie Delgado (Torrance, Calif./Bishop Montgomery) garnered her first career rookie of the week honor. Click here for full PDF Weekly Release.
Sais led the Hawks with a .421 batting average and four RBI over six games last week and delivered a pair of game-winning hits against then-league-leading Albany in extra innings. The junior slugged a double and two triples on the week and scored four runs in 19 at-bats. She singled with two outs in the eighth inning of Saturday’s 1-0 victory over the Great Danes, driving in the winning run from second base. Sais repeated the heroics in Sunday’s 2-1 final, slapping a base hit to center with two down in the eighth to drive in the winning run from second.
Struzenberg finished the week with a 0.31 ERA and a 4-0 record in 22.1 innings pitched. She allowed just three hits and one earned run, while striking out 25 batters faced and walking just nine. Struzenberg threw a no-hitter against Binghamton on Saturday, striking out 10, and then came on in relief in the second game of the doubleheader to earn the win. In Sunday’s win over the Bearcats, she threw a one-hitter to finish the series sweep earning all three of the victories.
Delgado picks up her first rookie award of the season batting .357 (5-for-14) last week in five games for the Terriers. The freshman drove in three RBI on five hits, and came around to score two runs. She walked once and struck out once, while stealing one bag on her only attempt on the base paths. Playing second base, Delgado also recorded 10 put outs, seven assists and just one error. She has started all 41 games for the conference-leading Terriers this season.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (23-13 overall record, 11-3 America East record) went 3-2 last week, wrapping up a season-sweep of Binghamton before dropping 2-of-3 on the road to Hartford... The Great Danes posted a 4-3 win over the Bearcats in an 11-inning affair that was resumed from March 30, than claimed a 9-2 win in the series finale... UAlbany defeated Hartford, 6-2, in the first game of that series, but lost one-run games in extra innings, with 1-0 and 2-1 decisions... With the win over the Hawks on Saturday, head coach Chris Cannata earned her 400th career victory at the helm of the UAlbany program... In her 14th season with the Great Danes, Cannata has posted a 400-201-1 record, including a 249-130-1 mark at the Division I level... UAlbany has averaged over 32 wins per season in eight seasons at Division I... Sophomore second baseman Michelle Connors (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa) led the Great Danes last week, posting a .353 average and recording six hits, including two home runs, and seven RBI... Senior Amber Maisonet (Newburgh, N.Y./Newburgh Free Academy) also knocked out six hits last week while going 4-for-4 on stolen base attempts... Sophomore hurler Marissa Powell (Midlothian, Texas/Midlothian) went 2-1 in four appearances with a 1.91 ERA... She struck out 29 opposing batters in 25.2 innings of work, including a career-high 11 in a complete-game performance at Hartford on Sunday... The Great Danes will visit Vermont for a doubleheader on Wednesday at 2 p.m. and travel to Stony Brook for a three-game conference series over the weekend.
Binghamton (6-29, 1-13 AE) freshman catcher Deannie Plemon (Irvine, Calif./Woodbridge) belted her team-leading fourth home run of the season against Siena last Thursday. She now has 19 RBIs this season ... senior third baseman Meghan Quinn (Temecula, Calif./Temecula Valley) is batting .333 against America East Conference opponents. She has also hit safely in five of her last seven games ... after a slow start, junior outfielder Michelle Olivieri (Conesus, N.Y.) is batting .350 (7-for-20) in her past 10 games.
The Boston University (26-15, 12-2 AE) softball team went 3-2 last week, which included a sweep of UMBC to propel the Terriers into first place in the America East standings... Boston U. is one game ahead of second-place Albany... The Terriers got off to a slow start with back-to-back losses to in-state rivals Boston College, 7-0, and UMass, 6-0, but turned the tide over the weekend with three straight wins over the Retrievers... After being shutout in the early games, Boston U.’s bats came alive in the conference match-up, as it scored 22 runs in the series... The freshmen tandem of April Setterlund (Torrance, Calif./South Torrance) and Melanie Delgado (Torrance, Calif./Bishop Montgomery) led the offense with batting averages of .375 and .357, respectively... Delgado also drove in three runs... Sophomore Cassidi Hardy (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter) picked up two wins in the circle and a 2.80 ERA in three appearances... The Terriers will travel to Maine on Wednesday and Harvard on Thursday, before hosting Binghamton over the weekend.
Hartford (17-15 overall, 6-8 AE) went 2-3 last week but picked up a pair of important wins over first-place Albany in conference play. The Hawks won each game in walk-off fashion, with junior Amanda Sais (Tustin, Calif./Tustin) delivering game-winning hits in the eighth inning of each victory. Her two-out single on Saturday drove in the winning run from second base and gave the Hawks a 1-0 victory. She then duplicated the feat on Sunday in the series finale, driving in the winning run with a two-out single to center field. She led the Hawks with a .421 batting average and four RBI for the week... Sophomore Brittney Stratton (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) pitched all three games of the weekend series against Albany and earned both wins. She threw the first no-hitter of her career in the eight-inning win on Saturday, striking out four. She then gave up one run on six hits over eight innings in Sunday’s victory... The no-hitter was the second by a Hartford pitcher this year. Earlier this season, freshman Amanda Singer (Monmouth Junction, N.J./East Brunswick) didn’t allow a hit over five innings in a 10-0 win over Coppin State... Hartford will play four America East games this week, beginning with a rubber match at Stony Brook on Wednesday, April 23. The Hawks will then host Maine for a weekend series on April 26-27.
Maine (8-35, 7-7 AE) went 3-1 at home last week, which marked the first home games of the 2008 season for the Black Bears ... Maine downed Colby College, 1-0, on Tuesday, and then took 2-of-3 from the Vermont Catamounts this weekend, including a thrilling 4-3 triumph in the bottom of the seventh inning Sunday ... Maine trailed 2-1 heading into the fifth inning on Sunday, but tied the school on a home run by Erin Iandoli (Worcester, Mass./Notre Dame Academy) ... the Black Bears went on top, 3-2, in the sixth with an RBI by Stephanie George (Seekonk, Mass./Seekonk), as she was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run ... after Vermont tied it 3-3 in the top of the seventh, Maine followed in the bottom half of the frame as Kristen Calvetti (Milford, N.H./Milford H.S.) roped an RBI single to center field to drive in Ashley Waters (Amesbury, Mass./Amesbury H.S.) for the game-winning run ... Waters batted .417 for the week with four doubles and three runs driven in ... Calvetti batted .364 for the week, while Iandoli hit at a .333 clip ... junior pitcher Jenna Balent (Conifer, Colo./Conifer H.S.) pitched a pair of complete-game victories over the Catamounts, including a 10-strikeout performance in Sunday’s win ... she allowed just six earned runs on the weekend and posted a 3.00 ERA during the week ... in Tuesday’s win over Colby, Alexis Souhlaris (Derry, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) struck out 14 batters to earn the win in the pitching circle ... Maine returns to action with four games this week ... the Black Bears close out their five-game homestand with a single game versus Boston University on Wednesday (3 p.m.) ... following that, Maine travels to Hartford for a three-game series with the Hawks this Saturday and Sunday.
UMBC (18-24, 7-7 AE) dropped three games to America East rival Boston University over the weekend... The Retrievers were outscored by the Terriers, 22-10... Senior catcher Kali Shirk (North Wales, Pa./North Penn) led the Retrievers’ offense with a .500 batting average (5-for-10), while senior second baseman Dana Shepherd (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills) batted .444 (4-for-9)... Shirk, Shepherd and senior pitcher Ashley Gray (Pasadena, Md./Northeast/Delaware State) each hit home runs in the series... UMBC is batting .293 as a team in 14 conference games, led by Shepherd, who is hitting .467 (21-for-45) and slugging .978 with nine extra-base hits, 15 RBI and 17 runs scored... She has hit a home run against each conference opponent this season... Gray, Shirk and sophomore first baseman Amanda Fefel (Baltimore, Md./Catonsville) are all batting better than .340 in America East games... Shirk needs one more hit to join Shepherd in UMBC’s exclusive 200-hit club for her career... Freshman hurler Stephanie Weigman (Elkridge, Md./Archbishop Spalding) became the seventh Retriever to strike out 100 batters in a season with a career-high nine in the second game of the Boston doubleheader... The Retrievers conclude their home schedule when they host America East rival Binghamton for a single game on Wednesday, then head to conference foe Vermont for a three-game series this weekend.
A two-out RBI double in the top of the seventh by junior Kelly Oberto (Spring Lake Heights, N.J.) proved to be the difference for Stony Brook (23-16-1, 8-6), in a 2-1 victory over Iona... Sophomore Casey Jacobs (Davie, Fla.) not only went 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, but also recorded the win, as the Seawolves swept the two-game series against Iona with a 6-4 win... Sophomore Alyssa Struzenberg (Cooper City, Fla.) threw a no-hitter and recorded ten strikeouts Saturday as Stony Brook's softball team beat Binghamton, 6-0... Struzenberg, who retired 15 straight batters at one points, issued just three walks and faced only 24 batters... Struzenberg threw a one-hitter Sunday as Stony Brook completed the three-game sweep of Binghamton with a 2-0 victory.
Vermont (11-22, 4-10 AE) went 1-2 on the week in a series at Maine ... The Cats took the middle game, 7-3 ... Junior Alison Daggett (Fort Collins, Colo./Fort Collins) threw a three-hitter to help Vermont defeat the Black Bears 7-3 ... She went the distance, not giving a hit over the last three innings, while striking out four for the game ... Freshman Caroline Goddard (Oakland, Calif./Piedmont) had two hits in each game, going 6-for-11 for the series ... Sophomore Rachelle Boone (Brentwood, Calif./Liberty) knocked in five runs in the series, including at least one in each game ... After playing the first 33 games of the season on the road, Vermont will open the home portion of its schedule on Wednesday when the Cats play host to Albany for a doubleheader starting at 2:00pm. It will mark the start of a 10-game home stand that continues over the weekend with three-game series against UMBC.