CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Three standouts had impressive weeks to haul in the final America East softball awards of the 2012 season. Binghamton's Jessica Bump batted .520 in leading Binghamton to a 6-2 week en route to earning Player of the Week honors, while Boston U.'s Whitney Tuthill picked up two wins and a save to take home Pitcher of the Week accolades. Albany's Alexa Toole rounded out the honorees by winner Rookie of the Week recognition. The awards for the week ending May 6 were announced Monday afternoon.
Bump (Windsor, N.Y.) had a whopping 13 hits in 35 at-bats last week, including five for extra bases in leading Binghamton to six non-league wins in eight games. The sophomore shortstop slugged a whopping 1.000 by belting three home runs, a double and a triple. Bump, who drove in seven and scored six times, recorded her first career two homer game in a win over Cornell. In the field, she converted all 32 of her chances at short.
Tuthill (Middletown, Conn.) factored in on the decision in three of the Terriers' four wins last week, earning two wins and a save. The junior hurler allowed just one run in 4 1/3 Tuesday to pick up a key win over Maine. She also earned a win and a save over UMBC this weekend. For the week, she compiled a 1.75 ERA and struck out nine in 20 innings of work.
Toole (South Glens Falls, N.Y.) batted .357 (5-for-14) with a 1.400 OPS last week. Three of the freshman shortstop's five hits were homers. She also drove in six runs and scored four.
With the regular season finishing up, the conference championship takes place this week. Boston U. captured their third straight regular-season title and will host the tournament. The Terriers will face Maine, which is making just its second tourney appearance since 2007, while Stony Brook faces Albany in the other game.
Team Notes
Albany (34-12, 13-5 AE) swept its non-conference doubleheader against Siena, 8-0 and 6-2, and dropped two of three against Stony Brook in the final America East weekend series ... The Great Danes finished third in the standings and will face Stony Brook in the semifinals on Thursday, May 10 in Boston, Mass. ... Alexa Toole (South Glens Falls, N.Y./ South Glens Falls) finished out her rookie regular season with a bang hitting three home runs and driving in six runs ... Toole is currently second on the team in batting with a .349 average and is third in both RBIs (30) and homeruns (6) ... Charlise Castro (Saugerties, N.Y./ Kingston) finished the regular season leading the conference in all three triple crown categories, home runs (13), RBIs (52) and batting average (.468) ... Castro, a transfer from Maryland Eastern Shore, tallied a home run and six runs batted in while drawing five walks to improve her On-Base Percentage to .541 ... Brittany MacFawn (Orlando, Fla./ Timber Creek) went 2-1 this past week, recording her eighth complete shutout against Siena ... MacFawn combined with Brittany Schwieger (Orangevale, Calif./ Sacramento City College), in the season finale, to defeat Stony Brook ... MacFawn went four innings allowing just one run on seven hits and Schwieger tallied three innings of three-run ball to record her first career save ... UAlbany finished with its eighth season of 30 or more wins at the Division I level in the America East
Binghamton (22-29, 7-11 AE) ended the year with 22 victories, marking the third straight season they have won at least 20 games. Prior to Michelle Burrell becoming the head coach in 2010, the Bearcats had not won 20 games in a season since 2002 ... sophomore second baseman Jessica Bump (Windsor, N.Y./Windsor) led Binghamton to a 6-2 week by hitting .520 (13-for-25) with three home runs and seven RBI. She reeled off five extra-base hits and recorded a slugging percentage of 1.000. In the second game of Wednesday's doubleheader against Cornell, Bump recorded the first two-home run game of her career. She also had three hits in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader against Colgate and Sunday's doubleheader against Niagara. In the field, Bump was a perfect 1.000 in 32 chances ... Binghamton ended the season with a 14-3 home record at the East Gym Field. Next year, the Bearcats will move to a new complex adjacent to the Events Center.
Boston U. (37-14, 15-3 AE) went 4-1 on the week and captured its third straight regular season title...The Terriers finish the regular season with a 37-14 overall record and 15-3 mark in the America East ... Boston U. traveled to Maine on Tuesday to complete its series with the Black Bears and defeated Maine 5-3....Terriers then traveled to UMass and lost a pitcher's duel with the Minutewomen, 1-0...Boston U. concluded the regular season with a three game series at UMBC and swept the Retrievers en route to earning the conference crown...On Saturday, BU won 6-4, behind home runs from sophomores Brittany Clendenny and Megan Volpano along with a two-run homer by junior Emily Roesch...The Terriers then swept UMBC in a doubleheader on Sunday, 9-4 and 10-1 (six innings)...BU's offense exploded for 13 hits in the first game of the doubleheader with junior Emily Roesch leading the way going 4-for-4 at the plate, including a triple, with three RBIs. Senior Erica Casacci posted two hits while sophomores Brittany Clendenny and Chelsea O'Connor also added a pair of hits...In the second game, rookie Mandy Fernandez hit her first career grand slam.
Hartford (10-43, 4-14 AE) went 1-4 in its final week of play, suffering a doubleheader sweep at Sacred Heart by respective 4-3 and 4-1 scores before taking one of three at home against Maine ... The Black Bears scored 5-1 and 2-1 victories on Saturday before Hartford put together a 4-3 triumph in the series finale on Sunday ... On the weekend, Amber Andrews (Greenwood, Del./Milford Senior) combined to bat .500 (5-for-10) with a slugging percentage of .900 to pace the Hawks ... Two of her hits went for extra bases - one home run and one double - and she collected one RBI with one run scored in the series ... A second baseman, she finished the season as Hartford's leader at the plate with a .267 average including 30 hits, 12 of which went for extra bases (7 doubles, 2 triples, 3 home runs) ... Senior Siera Sheehan (Binghamton, N.Y./Chenango Valley) tossed every pitch of the Maine series, allowing 10 runs - seven earned - on 21 hits in the 21.0 inning span ... She compiled 25 career victories, fifth-most in Hartford history, and is among the top-five in career appearances (100), complete games (63) and strikeouts (242) ... This year, she established Hartford's single season record for appearances (36) and games started (27) and with her 19 complete games is tied for fifth-most in program history ... Shannon Simpkins (Millville, N.J./Sacred Heart) is the Hawks only other senior ... Simpkins patrolled Hartford's outfield for four years, seeing time in 136 games while making 128 career starts ... She finished her career with 56 runs scored and 17 RBI.
Maine (17-28-1, 8-9-1 AE) locked up a spot in the America East Tournament as it took two out of three from Hartford in the final regular season series of 2012 ... The Black Bears will be making their first post-season appearance since 2010 as they missed out on the playoffs a season ago ... Maine has been rolling as of late as it has won six of its last eight heading into the post-season ... EmJ Fogel (Vienna, Va.) continued her stellar rookie campaign as she went 3-for7 on the weekend with three runs scored. Fogel currently leads the team in average (.333), runs (21), hits (45) and doubles (8). Ashley Kelley (Hermon, Maine) and Kylie Sparks (Kirkland, Wash.) each picked up wins in the circle as Kelley runs her undefeated streak to six-straight ... Senior Brynne Davis (Winslow, Maine) is peaking at a great time as her has raised her average from .150 to .306 over her seven games ... The #4 seeded Black Bears will now travel to battle #1 seeded, and host team, Boston University on Thursday, May 10th in the opening round of the 2012 America East Tournament.
UMBC (19-31, 1-17 AE) dropped all three games of a weekend set to regular season champion Boston University… The Terriers won game one, 6-4, on Saturday before the rains came, postponing game two until Sunday morning… The teams returned on Sunday and BU claimed the first game, 9-4, and finished the sweep with a 10-1 victory in six innings… Freshman Taylor Hall (Cosby, Va./Cosby) hit .500 (5-for-10) in the series with two homeruns and a double while also driving in three runs… Sophomore Jessica Warner (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) all hit .500 (5-for-10) against the Terriers including another homerun, her 11th of the season… At the end of the regular season, Hall leads the America East with 15 doubles while Warner sits just behind in third with 13 two-baggers… Warner’s 11 homeruns place her third in the conference and she also sits in second in hits (60) and total bases (108).
Stony Brook (35-15-1, 14-3-1 AE) posted a 2-2 record last week to close out the regular season...on Tuesday, the Seawolves dropped a 4-0 decision to Quinnipiac...Stony Brook bounced back to sweep Albany on Saturday as freshman Allison Cukrov (Irvine, Calif./Irvine) pitched both games and picked up her 23rd and 24th wins of the year to tie a single-season program record...Albany rebounded in Sunday's series finale, dealing the Seawolves a 7-4 setback...senior Bernadette Tenuto (Audubon, N.J./Paul VI) hit two home runs over the weekend and hit .455 for the week...Cukrov posted a 2-1 record and struck out 16 batters with a 3.00 ERA last week...the Seawolves finished the season with a winning record against every team in the America East...Stony Brook posted a 6-2-1 record against BU, Albany and Maine (the other three tournament participants), including two wins in Boston earlier this year...Cukrov finished the regular season with a 12-2 record in conference games with a 1.26 ERA, six shutouts and 90 strikeouts in 100 innings pitched...the Seawolves will face No. 3 Albany in the first game of the conference championship on Thursday.