CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Playing through wet and cold conditions most of the week, a trio of America East softball standouts have been touted Player, Pitcher and Rookie of the Week. Stony Brook University's Kelsi Fanelli (Audubon, N.J.), University of Maine's Jenna Balent (Conifer, Colo./Conifer) and Boston University's Emily Roesch (Palm Beach, Fla./Palms Beach Garden) picked up the respective awards for the week ending April 12.
Fanelli, a senior centerfielder, earned her second straight weekly honor by batting .692 (9-for-13) with six extra-base hits, six RBI and seven runs scored to lead the league-leading Seawolves to four wins in five games a week ago. Fanelli, who has reached safely in 25 straight games dating back to March 6, clouted a homer and five doubles on the week. She went a perfect 5-for-5 with three doubles and crossed the plate five times in a doubleheader sweep of Vermont Sunday.
Balent, senior hurler, was nearly unhittable last week throwing 19 scoreless innings and picked up three wins. In fact, she was unhittable in her start against Binghamton Sunday, throwing a no-hitter. She allowed just seven hits on the week, all of them singles, while walking eight and striking out 21. Over her last four starts, Balent, who has fired 26 straight scoreless frames, is 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA and just nine hits allowed.
Roesch, a freshman second baseman, had just three hits in 14 at bats last week, but single handily delivered a win over Maine on Wednesday. Roesch went 3-for-3 with a double, a homer and accounted for four of her team's seven runs with three driven in and one scored. She also walked twice and scored an insurance run in the Terriers' 3-0 win over Harvard on Thursday.
Team-By-Team Notebook
Albany (21-10, 4-3 America East) hosted UMBC in its only three games this past week ... The squad split a twinbill by winning the first game, 9-1, in five innings before dropping the nightcap by a 5-3 decision ... In the rubber game, the Great Danes rallied from one run down in the bottom of the eighth to record a 4-3 victory to clinch the series ... Junior catcher Kat Smith (Pasadena, Texas/Pasadena) proved to be the hero by hitting a two-run walk-off homer with one out in the bottom of the eighth ... It was her first home run in over a year since she went yard against the Retrievers on April 6, 2008 ... Meagan Butsch (Tomball, Texas/Tomball) finished the weekend with a .667 batting average, and she got on base every time she stepped up to the plate in the twinbill ... Leah McIntosh (Whitby, Ontario/Sinclair) got both wins in the circle for the Great Danes, improving her record to 13-1 ... Marissa Powell (Midlothian, Texas/Midlothian) has a 2.04 earned run average in her last eight starts ... The pitching staff held UMBC to a .188 team batting average ... The Retrievers entered the series with a .295 clip ... UAlbany starts this week with a doubleheader at home against Manhattan on Tuesday ... The Great Danes travel to Vermont for a doubleheader on Wednesday and Binghamton for a three-game series over the weekend.
Binghamton (5-26, 0-11 America East) was 2-6 last week but fell to 0-11 in conference play. The highlight of the week was a doubleheader sweep of Coppin State, 4-3 and 8-0. In the opener senior Sandy Meadows (Huachuca City, Ariz/Buena) hit a go-ahead two-run inside-the-park home run to give the Bearcats the lead and in the nightcap, junior Cyrilla Suker (Voorheesville, N.Y./ UMass Lowell) threw her first-career no-hitter (and only second for BU at the DI level). Suker allowed one walk in the second inning, barring her from achieving the perfect game. After the walk, she retired the final 14 batters in order. Suker also struck out 10 batters in the game and at one point fanned five in a row. Meadows had seven RBI on the week and Kelly Schuldt (Lisle, N.Y./Whitney Point) batted .353. Former All-Rookie selection Deannie Plemon (Irving, Calif./Woodbridge) returned to her all-star form batting .348 on the week with five RBI. Suker was the team's top pitcher on the week with a .342 ERA and leads the team on the season in that category with 4.73 rating. Meadows continues to lead the team in batting average (.305) and recently moved into a tie for fourth place on the Division I hits chart at Binghamton (114 career hits). Schuldt is the team's top run-producer on the year and has plated 11 base runners. Binghamton will play a mid-week non-conference doubleheader at St. Francis (Pa.) on Wednesday before hosting Albany in a three-game America East series this weekend.
Boston University (26-12, 6-3 America East) went 3-2 last week as it remains in a deadlock for second place with Hartford in the America East standings ... The Terriers and Hawks will break the tie on Monday when they face off in the rubber match of the three-game series at noon in West Hartford, Conn. ... Senior Shayne Lotito (Acton, Calif./Vasquez) etched her name in the top of the program annals as she broke the single-season (25) and career (83) marks for stolen bases, as well as the career record for runs (133) ... Classmate Melissa Dubay (Auburn, Wash./Auburn Riverside) is inching up on history as well, as she is now within eight RBIs of breaking former teammate Chiya Louie’s career record, currently set at 124 ... The Terriers will host a key conference match-up this weekend, as they will welcome first-place Stony Brook to BU Softball Field for a three-game series.
Hartford (13-13, 6-3 America East) went 2-2 last week, splitting games with Stony Brook on Wednesday and Boston University on Sunday ... Centerfielder Kristen Cericola (Morton, Pa./Ridley) led the Hawks’ offense, finishing 6-for-10 at the plate, compiling three extra-base hits ... Hurler Brittney Stratton (Statten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) earned her ninth and tenth victories on the season ... Hartford dropped the first game to Stony Brook by an 8-2 final and bounced back for a 2-1 come-from-behind win in the nightcap ... Cericola led the Hawks in the first game with a her fifth homer of the season ? a solo shot ? for Hartford’s second and final run of the game ... Stratton fanned 11 batters in the second game, while Cericola went 3-for-4 falling a double short of the cycle in the Hawks’ defeat of Stony Brook ... Hartford entered its final at-bats facing a 1-0 deficit, and plated two runs with two out off RBI singles by Lindsey Anrico (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull) and Sara Messinger (New Egypt, N.J./New Egypt) ... Saturday’s match-up with Boston University was postponed to Sunday due to steady rainfall ... Stratton pitched both games on Sunday against the Terriers, compiling 12 strikeouts over 14 innings ... The Hawks’ lone run in the opening game came on an inside the park homerun by senior Amanda Sais (Tustin, Ca./Tustin) ... Facing an early 3-0 deficit in the nightcap, Hartford rallied for a four-run third inning, led by Cericola’s bases-loaded single that plated a pair of runs ... The Hawks and Terriers play the rubber match of the three-game series on Monday ... Hartford will then play a pair of non-conference doubleheaders as they travel to Rhode Island on Tuesday and host Fairfield on Thursday.
Maine (26-18, 6-5 America East) went 4-1 during the past week, including a three-game sweep of Binghamton this past weekend in Vestal, N.Y. ... the Black Bears out-scored the Bearccats, 26-3, in the three games, including posting back-to-back shutout wins in six innings each ... Maine’s 12-0 win over Binghamton on Sunday saw senior pitcher Jenna Balent (Conifer, Colo./Conifer H.S.) tossed a no-hitter for the first of her career ... Balent made three starts last week and tossed complete-game, shutout wins in all three ... she struck out 21, while walking only eight and scattered seven hits over 19.0 innings of work ... overall, Balent has pitched four-straight complete-game shutout wins dating back two weeks ... Alexis Souhlaris (Derry, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) batted .579 for the week with three doubles, one triple, one home run and five runs driven in ... she posted a 1.000 slugging percentage and a .600 on-base percentage ... Stephanie George (Seekonk, Mass./Seekonk H.S.) and Kristen Calvetti (Milford, N.H./Milford H.S.) each batted .500 for the week and both smacked a homer ... Terren Hall (Bucksport, Maine/Bucksport H.S.) and Courtney Gingrich (Lititz, Pa./Warwick H.S.) each blasted two home runs ... Gingrich blasted her first career grand slam in the first inning of Wednesday’s 6-0 win over Boston University in game two of the doubleheader.
UMBC (25-16, 5-6 America East) went 3-2 in five America East games last week... The Retrievers outlasted Binghamton, 8-7, in 12 innings ? the third-longest game in UMBC history ? in the first game of a doubleheader on Wednesday... Down, 6-5, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, sophomore second baseman Lauren Brummell (Hanover, Va./Hanover) launched a home run to send the game into extra innings... After surrendering a solo homer in the top of the 10th, junior hurler Amanda Fefel (Baltimore, Md./Catonsville) drilled one of her own to tie the game again, before sophomore first baseman Malorie Weller (Round Hill, Va./Loudon Valley/Kennesaw State) hit a walk-off bomb in the 12th... Senior designated player Alison Duff (Brockport, N.Y./Brockport/Monroe CC) belted two homers and drove in five runs in UMBC’s 7-3 victory in the nightcap... Sophomore pitcher Stephanie Weigman (Elkridge, Md./Archbishop Spalding) tied her career high with 12 strikeouts in the game... UMBC split a doubleheader with Albany on Saturday, falling, 9-1, in six innings in game one before winning the nightcap, 5-3... The Retrievers dropped the rubber match to the Great Danes, 4-3, in an eight-inning heartbreaker... Down 2-0 in the top of the seventh, junior right fielder Emily Thompson (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Niagara Falls) tied the game with her second home run in as many days, and Brummell gave UMBC a brief 3-2 lead with a solo shot in the eighth before Albany hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the inning... Weigman broke UMBC’s single-season strikeout record with 198, and she ranks third in career whiffs with 339... Brummell’s 16 doubles this season are tied for the sixth-most in school history and are just three away from breaking the record... The Retrievers conclude their road trip with a doubleheader at Bucknell on April 14 and a single game at Georgetown on April 16 before returning home to host America East rival Vermont in a three game series this weekend.
Stony Brook (25-7, 8-2 America East) increased its lead in the America East Conference race by going 3-1 in league games... The Seawolves started the week off by splitting a doubleheader with Hartford... Led by junior Crista Cerrone’s four RBI, Stony Brook won game one against the Hawks 8-2... Junior Alyssa Struzenberg fanned ten batters on her way to the complete game victory... SBU lost a pitcher’s duel in the seventh inning of game, 2-1... The Seawolves then hosted a mid-week non-conference game against Iona, which they won in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the seventh inning... Stony Brook took advantage of consecutive throwing errors by the Gales to plate the winning run and pull off the 3-2 victory... After rain postponed games on Saturday, Stony Brook swept Vermont in a doubleheader on Sunday, outscoring the Catamounts 18-1... Struzenberg threw her second complete game of the week, pitching a 9-0 shutout... Senior Marissa Fleury ended both games with home runs, while senior Kelsi Fanelli went a perfect 5-for-5 with five runs scored... Fanelli had her second-straight week of hitting .500 or better, recording a .692 average.
Vermont (6-25, 3-5 America East) went 0-2 on the week, dropping a pair on the road to Stony Brook on Sunday ... The Cats had a home doubleheader vs. Albany rained out and pushed back to April 15 ... Vermont also had its doubleheader at Stony Brook on Saturday pushed back to Sunday due to weather ... The Seawolves won the first game 9-0 in five innings and then took the second 9-1 in six innings ... Vermont scored its only run of the game in the top of the fifth when freshman Kellin Haley (Oceanside, Calif./ Vista Murrieta) reached on an error to open the inning, moved to second on a ground out and after stealing third she would score on a wild pitch, to cut Stony Brook’s lead to 5-1 ... The two teams wrap up the three-game set on Monday with a single game starting at 12 p.m. ... The Catamounts will also host Albany in doubleheader action on Wednesday and then travel to UMBC for a three-game set this weekend.