New for the 2011-2012 seasons, the America East Daily Word, a collaboration between AmericaEast.com and AExtra, will recap the previous day's games and on goings on our nine campuses and provide links to previews, recaps, features and exclusive coverage.

Back in the America East Softball Championship after a tough 2011 season, Maine heads into Boston for tomorrow’s first round game confident against the Terriers.

That confidence starts in the circle with senior pitcher Ashley Kelley.

The Bangor Daily News ran a piece on Kelley in today’s paper, speaking with the righthander about how she has been able to turn a shaky 2011 into a successful 2012 for the Black Bears.

“My confidence has been better. You need to have confidence in all of your pitches and I didn’t have it last year. It didn’t help me,” Kelley told reporter Larry Mahoney in the interview. “My catcher [freshman EmJ Fogel] calls a great game and I’ve been able to keep the ball down and away from the hitters. I’ve been getting them to ground out.”

Kelley will need to get as many ground outs as possible during Maine’s first round matchup with regular season champion and No. 1 seed Boston University. The Terriers took the season series from the Black Bears 3-0 including a 5-3 win in Orono just last week. Kelley has been solid against Boston U. this season allowing just four runs in 17 2/3 innings of work.

The Terriers and Black Bears will play in the first game of the 2012 tournament tomorrow at 1 p.m. Shortly thereafter, Albany will take on second-seeded Stony Brook. For the complete schedule, visit Championship Central and you can check out the full article on Kelley and the Black Bears, here.

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