CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A trio of America East softball standouts earned the league's final weekly awards on Monday as University of Hartford' Nicole Springer (New Britain, Conn./Kingswood Oxford) and Boston University's Holli Floetker (Fountain Valley, Calif./Ocean View) and Chelsea Kehr (Florence, N.J./Florence) received weekly honors. Springer earned Player of the Week recognition while Floetker was named Pitcher of the Week and Kehr garnered Rookie of the Week honors.
Springer hit a scorching .692 in four games last week, racking up nine hits in 13 at-bats. The sophomore designated player scored three runs, had five extra-base hits, including four doubles and a home run and drove in six runs last week. Springer had a pair of 3-for-3 showings, including in her season finale, a 2-0 Hartford win that knocked Maine out of the America East tournament contention.
Floetker allowed just one earned run in seven innings of work last week and went 1-1 to improve to 12-4 on the season. She lowered her ERA to 1.87, which leads America East starting pitchers. A three-time America East Pitcher of the Week, Floetker fanned five and scattered six hits over six innings in a 3-2 win over the Bearcats Saturday.
Kehr, a freshman first baseman, earned her third conference Rookie of the Week honor of the season after batting .667 (8-for-12) with two doubles, two homers, four runs scored and five RBIs in four games last week. Kehr’s best game of the weekend came Sunday at Binghamton when she went 4-for-4 with a double, homer and three driven in.
Boston University earned the No. 1 seed for 2011 America East Softball Championship, which take place at BU Softball Field Thursday through Saturday. The Terriers, who shared regular-season title with Albany, open up the tournament against No. 4 UMBC Thursday at 1 p.m. while the No. 2 Great Danes face No. 3 Binghamton at 3:30 p.m.
Team Notes
Albany (25-21, 14-4 AE) swept Stony Brook in a three-game conference series to claim a share of the regular-season America East title ... Senior outfielder Jess Bergin (New Windsor, N.Y./Newburgh Free Academy) led the Great Danes, hitting .500 in three games with four hits, including a triple and two home runs ... In a 7-0 shutout on Saturday, Bergin accounted for four of UAlbany's seven runs, hitting her triple and one homer in that game ... Senior first baseman Gina Mason (Sacramento, Calif./El Camino) went 4-for-5 at the plate for the week, scoring three runs and driving in two more ... Senior Kristine Bill (Woodland, Calif./Woodland) and junior Katie Wambold (Hatboro, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) also hit home runs over the weekend ... Freshman Brittany MacFawn (Orlando, Fla./Timber Creek) recorded a staff-low 1.45 ERA, earning the shutout win in Saturday's nightcap and also picking up the save on Sunday ... MacFawn struck out eight opposing batters in nine and two thirds innings of work.
Binghamton (22-21, 10-7 AE) is in the America East Tournament for the first time in its 10-year conference affiliation. The Bearcats are the No. 3 seed and will square off against No. 2 Albany in the opening round of the double-elimination event on Thursday ... junior outfielder Meghan Tucker (Kirkwood, N.Y./Windsor) went 5-for-10 this past weekend in the series against Boston. She homered one, belted a pair of doubles and drove in four runs ... freshman designated hitter Demi Laney (Cassellberry, Fla./Lake Howell) hit safely in all three games against Boston and enters the postseason with a four-game hitting streak. She has homered twice and driven in seven runs during that span ... senior catcher Deannie Plemon (Irvine, Calif./Wood) finished the regular season with four career program records-- home runs (34), RBI (121), total bases (274) and extra-base hits (66) ... sophomore outfielder Jessica Phillips (Syracuse, N.Y./Cicero North) enters the postseason with the highest batting average by a Binghamton player during the program's 10-year Division I era (.444). She is also on pace to surpass her 2010 Division I era-records in slugging percentage (.897) and on-base percentage (.581).
The two-time defending America East champions Boston University (32-16, 14-4 AE) took two of three games at Binghamton to secure a share of the regular-season title and home-field advantage in the conference tourney ... On Saturday, the Terriers defeated the Bearcats, 3-2, in a rain-shortened contest and then fell in game two, 8-7 ... In the rubber match, Boston U. earned a 7-4 victory to close out the regular season ... Redshirt freshman Chelsea Kehr (Florence, N.J./Florence) had another impressive week as she batted .667 in four games ... She drove in five runs to bring her season total to 40, which ranks second at Boston U. for a single season ... She also hit two home runs, as she now ranks fifth at Boston U. for a single season in that category ... Senior April Setterlund (Torrance, Calif./South Torrance) was also prolific in the batter's box with a .583 (7-of-12) batting average ... She needs three home runs and 10 walks to break program career records as well as three walks to snap Christy Leath's ('09) single-season mark ... Boston U. will host fourth-seeded UMBC on Thursday afternoon at BU Softball Field on the first day of the America East Softball Championship.
Hartford (10-34, 4-14 AE)
won three of its last four decisions to close out the 2011 campaign ...
The Hawks scored a 12-7 win over Holy Cross on Thursday's Senior Day
before taking the final two of a three-game set at Maine ... Nicole
Springer (New Britain, Conn./Kingswood Oxford) paced the Hawks in their
final four games batting .692 and slugging 1.231 ... In 13 at-bats, she
notched nine hits, including four doubles and one home run, drove in six
runs and scored three times ... On her Senior Day, Lauren Kamena
(Nesconset, N.Y./Smithtown) collected three hits, drove in two runs and
scored two as she sparked the Hawks' to a 12-7 win on Thursday and
snapped Hartford's seven-game losing streak ... At Maine, the Hawks saw
an early lead disappear and fell 6-5 in the opening game ... In the
second game, sophomore Jordan Haines (King of Prussia, Pa./Upper Merion
Area) went 4-for-4, driving in three runs as the Hawks came back from
deficits of three and two runs to earn an 8-6 victory ... Siera Sheehan
(Binghamton, N.Y./Chenango Valley) earned the victory inside of the
circle ... In its season finale, Hartford came away with a 2-0 victory
behind a superb performance inside of the circle by Kaitlyn Meade
(Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) ... Meade went the distance and scattered
just four hits to earn her second career shutout ... Melani Maxwell
(West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) drove in one with her first triple of
the season and scored once to pace the Hawks in the rubber match ...
Hartford loses Kamena to graduation.
Maine (18-31, 7-10 AE) ended its season by going 1-2 against Hartford on senior weekend for the Black Bears ... the two losses eliminated the Black Bears from the America East Tournament as they fell just one win shy of making the field of four ... Jennifer Eberhardt (Glendale, Ariz.) led the way all weekend for Maine as she blasted two home runs, her fifth and sixth of the season, over the weekend ... Terren Hall (Bucksport, Maine) also had a home run in game one on Saturday, giving her nine on the season and ending her record for career home runs at 35 ... Hall ends the season as Maine's leader in average (.361), hits (52), doubles (10), home runs (nine), RBIs (41), slugging percentage (.618), and walks (26) ... Hall is now the all-time career leader at Maine in home runs (35), doubles (43), games played (204) and finished the season just three walks shy of tying the school-record for walks in a season which currently sits at 29. Hall started 204 out of a possible 204 career games in her career at Maine ... Maine's 1-2-3 hitters of Eberhardt, Kali Burnham (Courtice, Ontario), and Hall combined to drive in over 50% of Maine's runs this season as together the three compiled 84 of Maine's 163 RBIs ... Prior to Sunday's game, each player presented their mother with flowers on Mother's Day. The Black Bears also honored their four seniors, Kirstin Allen (Doylestown, Pa.), Burnham, Hall and Cassie Hodgson (Hanover, N.H.) for their dedication to the softball program over the past four years.
UMBC (25-23, 8-10 AE) earned the No. 4 seed in the America East Championship and will face top-seeded Boston University on Thursday… The Retrievers return to the conference tournament after missing it last year for the first time since 2005… UMBC fell to East Carolina and Longwood on Saturday in Farmville, Va., snapping its five-game winning streak… The Retrievers dropped a 4-0 decision to the Pirates despite a strong pitching performance by sophomore Heather Brown (Pasadena, Md./Northeast)… UMBC then fell to the host Lancers, 7-4… Senior left fielder Julia Culotta (Street, Md./North Harford/Tennessee) blasted her ninth home run of the season… She is tied for seventh all-time at UMBC with 21 career homers… Four Retrievers are batting better than .300 this season, led by Culotta’s .391 average… She is also slugging .662 and has reached base at a .512 clip to go along with a team-best 33 RBIs and 37 runs scored… Senior second baseman Lauren Brummell (Hanover, Va./Hanover) ranks second all-time at UMBC with 47 career doubles… She is batting .340 with 12 two-baggers in 2011… Freshman Jessica Warner (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) is batting a team-best .385 against America East opponents.
Stony Brook (20-29, 5-13 AE) finished out its season last week with two games at Seton Hall and three at Albany ... the Seawolves split with the Pirates, winning 6-0 and losing 4-0, before dropping all three games against the Great Danes, 5-2, 7-0 and 6-4 ... junior Lauren Maloney (Las Vegas, Nev.) hit .533 (8-for-15) with three RBI last week, raising her average to .308 for the season ... Maloney went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run in the first game at Seton Hall ... freshman Alex Clark (Warsaw, Va.) picked up the victory against the Pirates, tossing a complete-game shutout, while striking out five ... on Saturday at Albany, freshman Elise Fortier (Coventry, R.I.) knocked in both Seawolves' runs with a single in the sixth inning ... on Sunday, both Maloney and junior Alyssa Hawley (Spokane, Wash.) went 4-for-4 with two RBI ... the Seawolves won at least 20 games this year for the 11th consecutive season, all under the direction of head coach Megan Bryant...including Maloney (.308), junior Bernadette Tenuto (Audubon, N.J.) also hit above the .300 mark (.338) ... Tenuto also led the team in hits (50), doubles (11), RBI (22) and tied for the team lead with three home runs ... senior Colleen Matthes (Severn, Md.) closed out the year with 13 wins (10th-most in a single season in program history) and 163 strikeouts (sixth-most in a single season in program history).