CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The 2012 softball conference season passed the midway point over the weekend and three players who led their teams to series wins are this week's league award winners. Brittany Clendenny paced Boston U. to a key series win over at Albany to earn Player of the Week honors while Allison Cukrov led Stony Brook to a sweep of UMBC and earned Pitcher of the Week accolades. Maine's EmJ Fogel keyed Maine to a sweep of Binghamton and earned her first Rookie of the Week honor. The award winners for the week ending April 15 were announced Monday afternoon.
Clendenny (Gainsville, Va.) batted .500 and reached base in 7-of-12 plate appearances (.583 OBP) in three games with three extra-base hits including a pair of home runs giving her a slugging percentage of 1.200 for the week. The sophomore shorstop, who earned America East All-Rookie honors a year ago, knocked in five runs and scored five more as the Terriers took two of three from the Great Danes. Clendenny's top performance of the weekend came in a 13-2 win over Albany Saturday when she went 2-for-3 with a double, a homer, and two driven in.
Cukrov (Irvine, Calif.) continued her stellar freshman campaign, going 4-0 with a 0.52 earned run average in four appearances. The right-hander, who's earned four America East Pitcher of the Week honors already this season, allowed just two runs over 27 innings of work while striking out 20. Cukrov allowed just 16 baserunners in the four games (11 hits, 5 walks) and held opponents to measly .122 batting average. She leads the conference in wins (17), ERA (1.05), shutouts (11) and strikeouts (139). The 11 shutouts is tied for the most in Stony Brook's program history.
Fogel (Vienna, Va.) led Maine to three key wins as it swept Binghamton and bettered its chances of earning an America East Championship bid. The freshman catcher batted .500 with a pair of doubles and scored four runs. She compiled a 1.283 OPS in the three games reached base in in 7-of-12 plate appearances (.583 OBP) and slugged .700.
Stony Brook (8-1), Albany (9-3) and Boston U. (8-3) sit at the top of the league standings with three weeks to play. Binghamton (6-6) sits in fourth place, the final playoff spot, with Maine (3-5) just a game back in the loss column. UMBC (1-8) and Hartford (0-9) round out the league standings.
This weekend, Albany hosts Binghamton, UMBC visits Hartford and Stony Brook entertains Maine.
Team Notes
Albany (26-10, 9-3 AE)
grabbed two wins last week, a non-conference and a conference win .... The Great Danes defeated Manhattan, 8-2, in game two on Wednesday, April 14 and Boston U. on Sunday, April 15 in game three, 6-4, in walk-off fashion ... Vicky McFarland (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) recorded a hit in all five games last week to start a modest five-game hitting streak ... Her only hit in the Sunday mantinee game versus Boston U. was the game-winning home run and walk-off home run as well ... Brittany Schwieger (Orangevale, Calif./ Sacramento City College) pitched three crucial relief innings in the third game against Boston U. of no-run ball and just three hits to allow UAlbany to walk-off in the bottom of the seventh and record her 11th win of the season ... Allie Weiser (Wildwood Crest, N.J./ Wildwood Catholic) had her best outing of the season in game two versus Manhattan, allowing just one run on four hits in five innings to record her second victory of the season ... Albany prepares for its non-conference doubleheader against Dartmouth on Wednesday, April 18 then its America East Conference weekend series agianst Binghamton, starting on Saturday, April 21 at Albany Field.
In their first meeting since the 2011 AE Championship, Boston U.
(24-13, 8-3 AE) went 2-1 against Albany ... Boston U. defeated Albany by a score of 13-2 in five innings in the first game of the doubleheader, including an eight-run fifth inning ... Sophomore Amy Ekart hit a grand slam for her team-leading sixth homerun of the season while classmate Brittany Clendenny added her third homer of the season to lead the Terriers in game one..Sophomore Holli Floetker picked up her 13th win of the seasonand allowed five hits and two runs while striking out 10 batters to move her record to 13-3 in the circle ... Boston U. capped the day with a 3-1 victory over the Great Danes in the second game of the doubleheader. Erica Casacci led the Terriers with two hits, including a triple, while Chelsea O’Connor smacked a double for two RBIs. Junior Erin Schuppert pitched the complete game for the Terriers and allowed just one run and five hits to improve to 5-5 on the season ... In the third game, the Terriers dropped a 6-4 decision despite taking a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh ... Four Terriers posted a pair of hits on the afternoon, as sophomores Jayme Mask, Megan Volpano, Brittany Clendenny and Chelsea Kehr each posted two hits. Clendenny led the team with two RBIS and hit her fourth homer of the season while Mask and senior Melanie Delgado knocked in the other runs.
Binghamton (15-22, 6-6 AE)
heads up to Albany for its final road conference series of the year this coming weekend ... senior outfielder Meghan Tucker (Kirkwood, N.Y./Windsor) went 5-for-15 last week (.333). In the three-game series against Maine this past weekend, she finished 4-for-9 (.444) ... senior designated hitter Chelsea Horne (Williamsville, N.Y./Williamsville) batted .333 in the series at Maine, going 3-for-9 with three doubles. In conference games, Horne is batting .438 with eight doubles and a home run ... junior outfielder Jessica Phillips (Syracuse, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) leads the team with a .348 batting average and nine home runs. She is also tied with sophomore first baseman Mikala King (Binghamton, N.Y./Chenango Valley) for the team lead with 20 RBI. With her home run in Saturday's doubleheader at Maine, Phillips has now homered against all four conference opponents the Bearcats have faced this season.
Hartford (5-32, 0-9 AE) played six games this week, all out of conference, and went 1-5 ... The Hawks dropped a doubleheader at home against Fairfield (3-2, 10-4) before suffering two losses at Holy Cross on Thursday (12-4, 4-5) ... On Sunday, the Hawks hosted Manhattan, and fell to the Jaspers by a 5-1 count before rebounding for a 5-3 victory in second game ... The win snapped a 23-game losing skid for the Hawks which dated back to an 8-0 setback to Northwestern in Clearwater, Flar. on Mar. 20 ... Melani Maxwell (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) and Chelsey Mooney (Corona, Calif./Corona) each recorded multiple hits over the two games against Manhattan with Mooney collecting three, including a pair of doubles ... Maxwell combined for three RBI on a pair of hits ... During its six game stretch last week, Jordan Haines (King of Prussia, Pa./Upper Meriod Area) paced Hartford at the plate, batting .375 (6-for-16) with three doubles, three RBI and two runs scored ... Ana Alberti (New Port Richey, Fla./River Ridge), a rookie, earned the Hawks' lone win of the week, marking the first of her collegiate career .... The Hawks hit the road for Loudonville, N.Y. to take on the Siena Saints in a doubleheader on Wednesday (2:30 p.m.) before welcoming the UMBC Retrievers to the University of Hartford Softball Field for a three-game set.
Maine (10-24, 3-5 AE)
swept Binghamton over the weekend, winning by scores of 8-2, 4-2 and 3-2 ... Maine's win in game three of the series came in the form of a come from behind victory as the Black Bears trailed by a run heading into the bottom of the seventh. Maine was able to tie it up before freshman Jessica Burk (Warrenton, Va.) dropped a single into right field for the walk-off win. The day before, Burk hit her first career home run in the form of a grand slam in game two. It was the second-straight game that the Black Bears belted a grand slam as Hilary Kane did so in game one on Saturday ... The Black Bears have now won 9 straight at Kessock Field against Binghamton and 11 of the last 12 ... EmJ Fogel (Vienna, Va.) has now had a hit in eight of her last nine games and is now riding a three game hit streak while sophomore Dagmar Ralphs (O'Fallon, Ill.) has a hit in her last five contests ... The win on Saturday was the first America East victory for new head coach Lynn Coutts ... Fogel is now hitting .326 on the year to lead the Black Bears as the freshman also leads Maine in hits (31), doubles (6) and runs scored (13) ... Maine hosts Husson University on Tuesday to complete its seven game homestand before heading to Stony Brook for a three-game weekend series beginning on Saturday at 1 p.m.
After its midweek game against Mount St. Mary’s was postponed,
UMBC (17-22, 1-8 AE) was swept by Stony Brook in a three-game weekend series… Sunday’s game was UMBC’s shortest of the year, lasting just one hour and eleven minutes … Freshman Tayor Hall (Cosby, Va./Cosby) led the Retrievers at the plate in the series, batting .444 (4-for-9) against the Seawolves with one homerun and four RBI while also scoring four runs… Sophomore Jessica Warner (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) continues to lead the UMBC offense with a .373 average (44-for-118), 10 home runs, 27 runs scored and 24 RBIs … The Retrievers now have the midweek off from games before heading to Connecticut to take on Hartford in a three-game weekend series … UMBC and Hartford will play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. and return on Sunday for a single game set to start at 12 p.m.
Stony Brook (27-9, 8-1 AE)
went 5-0 last week with a pair of wins over Rider and three victories over UMBC ... Stony Brook outscored its opposition 45-5 last week, hitting .436 at the plate, while holding opponents to just a .146 average ... the Seawolves defeated Rider 8-0 and 3-1 on Monday as freshman Allison Cukrov (Irvine, Calif./Irvine) pitched both games and held the Broncs to just six total hits over the course of the doubleheader ... Cukrov also started all three games against UMBC and allowed only one run in 14 innings pitched... for the week, Cukrov posted a 4-0 record with a 0.52 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 27 innings pitched, while holding opponents to just a .122 average ... on Sunday, Cukrov tied Stony Brook's single-season program record with her 11th shutout of the season...freshman Shayla Giosia (Runnemede, N.J./Gloucester Catholic) hit .333 (6-for-18) in five games last week and led the team with eight RBI to go along with one HR and six runs scored...senior Alyssa Hawley (Spokane, Wash./University HS) led the team with 11 hits and seven runs scored last week...the Seawolves did not commit a single error last week, going a perfect 90/90 on putouts...the Seawolves also set a new program record for most runs scored on a single day against a conference opponent with 29; on Saturday vs. UMBC, the Seawolves scored 10 in the first game and 19 in the second game, breaking the program's previous record of 28 runs in a day set against Maine in 2007 ... All nine starters had hits in game two's 19-3 rout and nine different Stony Brook players scored at least one run...the Seawolves scored 11 runs in the first inning of that game, which was the most in a single frame since the team plated 12 vs. Toledo in 2010...Stony Brook has seven home games this week, starting with a doubleheader vs. Rutgers on Tuesday at 2 p.m.