CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Fresh off a 5-0 week, Albany has swept the America East softball awards. Sophomore Charlise Castro earned Player of the Week after batting .750 last week, while classmate Brittany McFawn picked up Pitcher of the Week honors after going 3-0 and allowing just four base runners in 19 innings of week. Freshman Vicky McFarland belted three homers to take Rookie of the Week accolades and round out the sweep. The awards for the week ending April 22 were announced Monday afternoon.
Castro (Saugerties, N.Y.) continued her stellar season by hitting .750 (8-12) this past week with four extra-base hits, including three doubles and a homer. The sophomore first baseman knocked in 10 runs and scored five more to lead Albany to a doubleheader sweep of Dartmouth and a three-game sweep of Binghamton. Castro leads the conference in all three triple crown categories, hitting .482 with 12 homers and 46 RBIs.
MacFawn (Orlando, Fla.) picked up three more wins and registered a 0.74 ERA over 19 innings. The reigning America East Championship Most Outstanding Player allowed just three hits and one walk while striking out 21 last week. McFawn, who's earned three Pitcher of the Week nods this season, took two perfect games into the seventh inning before they were broken up. For the season, she is 16-4 with a 1.59 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 121 1/3 innings of work.
McFarland (Staten Island, N.Y.) earned Rookie of the Week honors after hitting .374 (5-for-13) with three homers, four RBI and six runs scored last week. The freshman outfielder registered a monster 1.606 OPS as she slugged 1.077 with a .529 on base percentage. She also was 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts. On the season, she is batting .333 with 31 runs scored, which is tied for third among league leaders, and 23 steals, which ranks second.
With two weeks to go in the regular season, Stony Brook sits atop the America East standings at 10-1-1. The Seawolves took two games from Maine over the weekend while the third game ended in a tie. Albany is in second at 12-3 following its sweep of Binghamton, while Boston U., which was idle last week, is right tied in loss column, but four games back in the win column. Binghamton (6-9) and Maine (3-7-1) are fourth and fifth while Hartford is in sixth at 3-9 following its three-game sweep of UMBC (1-11).
Team Notes
Albany (31-10, 12-3 AE) went 5-0 this past week, sweeping its third America East Conference weekend series against Binghamton and taking two from Dartmouth ... The Great Danes are currently on a 6-game winning streak ... Brittany MacFawn (Orlando, Fla./ Timber Creek) pitched great recording three more wins in the circle, allowing just two runs and three hits in 19 innings pitched to improve to 16-4 on the season ... MacFawn had two perfect-game bids going last week but both were broken up in the top of the seventh ... Vicky McFarland (Staten Island, N.Y./ Tottenville), in the lead-off spot, tallied three home runs this past week and a perfect four-for-four in stolen bases ... Brittany Schwieger (Orangevale, Calif./ Sacramento City College) went 2-0 last week to improve to 13-4 on the season ... She allowed just two runs (1 earned) on six hits and six walks in 12 innings pitched ... Charlise Castro (Saugerties, N.Y./ Kingston) continues to hit well as she had 10 runs batted in and slugged her team-leading 12th home run of the season against Binghamton in game one ... UAlbany will look to carry its six-game winning streak in a non-conference doubleheader against Bryant on Thursday, April 26 at Albany FIeld to conclude the 12-game homestand.
Junior outfielder Jessica Phillips (Syracuse, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) has now homered against every team in the America East Conference. Her seventh-inning home run against Albany on Saturday was her 10th homer of the season. She has now reached double figures in home runs in all three seasons she has been at Binghamton (15-25, 6-9 AE) ... freshman shortstop Caitlyn Friis (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock) finished the Bearcats' series against Albany 2-for-5 (.400) with a double and a triple.
Boston U. (27-13, 8-3 AE) went 3-0 last week with three straight shutouts...The Terriers outscored their opponents 17-0 in 17 innings...On Tuesday, Boston U. won a pitcher's duel with Harvard, as sophomore Holli Floetker threw a complete game shutout while classmate Megan Volpano drove in the winning run...Boston U. then hosted Rhode Island for a doubleheader on Thursday and defeated the Rams 8-0 in five innings in both games...Floetker threw a five-inning no hitter in the first game whole junior Whitney Tuthill allowed just one hit in the second game...Sophomores Megan Volpano and Chelsea Kehr each had four RBIs and both swung for a home run...BU now has nine shutouts on the season...The Terriers doubleheader at Fairfield on Sunday was canceled and will not be made up.
Hartford (8-34, 3-9 AE) went 3-2 on the week, scoring all three victories against league foe UMBC in West Hartford ... The three-game league sweep was the first for the Hawks since the 2009 season when they scored three victories at home against Vermont ... On Friday, Hartford scored two wins by respective scores of 3-1 and 7-4 and went on to take the final game by a 3-2 count on Saturday ... Senior Siera Sheehan (Binghamton, N.Y./Chenango Valley) threw every pitch of the weekend series, holding the Retrievers to a 2.33 ERA and .215 average of the plate while allowing seven runs on 17 hits in 21.0 innings ... She recorded 12 strikeouts in the stretch and issued 10 walks ... Amber Andrews (Greenwood, Del./Milford Senior) batted .500 on the week, including a 5-for-9 effort against UMBC, and finished the week with four runs scored and an RBI ... Prior to the weekend series, Hartford dropped two games at Siena, falling by a 10-2 count in game one before suffering a 5-4 loss in walk-off fashion in game two ... Kate Wacyk (Sellersvile, Pa./Pennridge) launched a grand slam in the top of the seventh to tie things up at 4-4 against Siena but an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh clinched the victory for the Saints ... In mid-week action, Hartford hosts Quinnipiac in a doubleheader on Wednesday (2:30 p.m.) before facing Connecticut in Storrs on Thursday for a single game (4:00 p.m.) ... The Hawks then travel to Boston University for a weekend three-game set, starting with a doubleheader on Saturday (1:00 p.m.).
Maine (11-26-1, 3-7-1 AE) went 1-2-1 over the weekend as it picked up its fourth straight win when it defeated Husson in a midweek affair before dropping the first two games at Stony Brook, 3-0 and 1-0, and then tying 1-1 when the game was called because of rain in the top of the eighth ... Jennifer Eberhardt (Glendale, Ariz.) belted her second home run of the season in the top of the first against Stony Brook on Sunday ... Freshman Jessica Burk (Warrenton, Va.) is currently riding a seven game hit streak as she has hit in every game she's played in dating back to April 14 against Binghamton ... EmJ Fogel (Vienna, Va.) and Dagmar Ralphs (O'Fallon, Ill.) each had five-game hitting streaks snapped over the weekend ... Junior hurler Beth Spoehr (Appleton, Wis.) has seen her ERA drop from 6.94 to 5.02 over her last four appearances. Spoehr has picked up two wins over that period and is coming off a week where she went 1-1 with a 0.55 ERA ... The Black Bears step out of conference to host St. Joseph's College of Maine on Wednesday at 4 pm before welcoming UMBC to Kessock Field for a three game series beginning with a doubleheader at 12 p.m. on Saturday.
UMBC (17-25, 1-11 AE) was swept in a three-game series at Hartford in its only action of the week... All three games were close and none were decided by more than three runs... Sophomore Jessica Warner (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) hit .455 (5-for-11) over the weekend with two doubles and an RBI while scoring three runs... Freshman Taylor Hall (Cosby, Va./Cosby) was also strong batting .375 (3-for-8) with a homerun and two RBIs... Hall's homerun in game three of the series was her sixth of the season... UMBC returns to the diamond on Tuesday to host LaSalle for a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.
Stony Brook (31-11-1, 10-1-1 AE) posted a 4-2-1 record last week, falling twice to Rutgers on Tuesday, beating Bryant twice on Thursday and posting a 2-0-1 record against Maine over the weekend...freshman Allison Cukrov (Irvine, Calif./Irvine) posted 18 innings of shutout baseball over the weekend against Maine to cap off a week during which she went 3-1 (including a save) with a 1.27 ERA in 33 innings pitched...Cukrov struck out 30 batters last week and picked up shutouts No. 12 and 13 on the season to break a single-season program record...Cukrov also picked up wins 18, 19 and 20 this week and now owns a 20-5 record to go along with four saves...opponents hit just .178 off Cukrov last week...After winning the first game of a doubleheader against Bryant on Thursday, Cukrov returned to pitch the seventh inning in game two to notch the save as Stony Brook swept the Bulldogs by scores of 3-2 and 6-5...on Saturday against Maine, Cukrov held the Black Bears scoreless in both games, while striking out seven in each contest...Cukrov also pitched four scoreless innings in relief in Sunday's 1-1 tie, which ended after seven innings due to rain...senior Alyssa Hawley (Spokane, Wash.) led the Seawolves with a .400 average last week (10-for-25) to go along with three stolen bases...Stony Brook returns to action Wednesday at Sacred Heart for a doubleheader, before traveling to Binghamton this weekend.