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News Release

UMBC SOFTBALL HEADS TO DELAWARE FOR DOUBLEHEADER WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

3/7/2006

Stevie Shore leads the Retrievers with seven extra-base hits and 23 total bases.

Baltimore, Md.-The UMBC softball team travels to Newark, Del., Wednesday afternoon for a doubleheader, with the first game scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. The Retrievers are 9-3 on the season and have won eight in a row.

The two teams have played doubleheaders in each of the last three seasons, with Delaware holding a 2-4 advantage. Last year, the Retrievers and Blue Hens split two games at UMBC Softball Stadium.

UMBC Kickoff Classic a Classic

The Retrievers opened their home season last weekend with the Second Annual UMBC Kickoff Classic and were crowned champions of the tournament with a perfect 5-0 record. Senior Jessica Griffith was named tournament MVP after hitting .500 with seven hits in 14 at-bats, including three home runs and a double for a 1.214 slugging percentage. Her third home run was a three-run walk-off shot in the championship game against Delaware State. She also drove in 10 runs and scored five and had a .562 on-base percentage.

Nine other Retrievers were named to the all-tournament team, including pitchers Krista Kearns (no-hitter, CG, 0 R, 7 K, 2 BB), Brittany Boyd (2-0, 1.27 ERA, 11 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 13 K), Amy Sadowl (CG, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 6 K) and Lauren Nicholson (CG, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K); first baseman Melanie Denischuk (.333 avg., 7 RBI, 5 H, HR, 2B); second baseman Ashlea Underwood (.500 avg., .625 OBP, 6 H, 6 R, 5 RBI, 4 BB); third baseman Reilly Ward (.500 avg., 7 H, 6 RBI, 5 R, .529 OBP);  shortstop Dana Shepherd (.375 avg., 6 R, 6 H, 4 RBI, 2B, 3B, 2 SB); and Stevie Shore (6 R, 4 RBI, 6 H, .333 avg., HR, 2 2B).

As a team, the Retrievers batted .368 (50-for-136) and out-scored opponents 46-7. The pitchers posted a stellar 1.17 ERA and held opponents to a .151 batting average, allowing just 16 hits in 30 innings.

Dawg Bites…

Underwood is hitting .458 (11-for-24) to lead the Retrievers, who are batting .314 as a team… Denischuk leads the team with 15 RBI, followed by Griffith and Shore with 12 apiece… Shore also leads UMBC with seven extra-base hits (four doubles, three home runs) and 23 total bases. Seventy percent of her hits this season have gone for extra bases… Shore is in the midst of a team-best six-game hitting streak… The Retrievers won the consolation championship at the season-opening UNC-Wilmington Seahawk Classic. Ward and center fielder Kali Shirk were named to the all-tournament team, as Shirk hit .353 (6-for-17) in six games with five runs scored and nine steals, while Ward crushed two home runs… Shepherd leads the team with four multi-hit games, as she has gotten two hits in a game three times and three hits once… Denischuk has the most multi-RBI games with four, as she has twice driven in two runs in a game and twice knocked in three… Shore and Ward have each posted four RBI once, but Griffith is the only Retriever to drive in five runs in a game in 2006… Boyd has posted a team-best 1.70 ERA.

Power Surge

The Retrievers have put on a power show early on this season, smashing 14 home runs in their first 12 games, including three each by Denischuk, Griffith and Shore. Ward has hit two homers to give her 18 in her career, moving her four behind Taryn McDonald for second place in UMBC history.

Home Runs/Career
1. Kristie Pickeral         40
2. Taryn McDonald      22
3. Reilly Ward            18

Speedy Gonzalez

Shirk is a perfect 15-for-15 on the base paths and is now 32-for-32 in stolen base attempts to start her career, a UMBC record. She moves into eighth place all-time at UMBC, just two behind Stacy Reynolds for seventh place. Shirk has stolen at least one base in nine of the Retrievers’ first 12 games of the season, and she has swiped three bases three times. She stole 17 bases in all of 2005, the sixth-best total in team history, but she is just two away from tying that mark, also held by Lisa Boone in 2002.

Stolen Bases/Career
1. Deanna Vecchio       135
2. Amy Wolff   79
3. Sue Feliciano            57
4. Lisa Boone   44
5. Taryn McDonald      41
6. Sarah Colea 40
7. Stacy Reynolds         34
8. Kali Shirk   32

Stolen Bases/Season
1. Sue Feliciano            47        1993
2. Deanna Vecchio       40        2000
3. Amy Wolff               38        1997
4. Deanna Vecchio       33        ‘99, ‘02
5. Deanna Vecchio       29        2001
6. Lisa Boone               17        2002
    Kali Shirk                 17        2005

Kali Shirk                   15        2006

1-2 Punch

Nicholson, a senior, is 4-0 on the season to give her 42 career wins and move her out of a three-way tie with Sadowl and Crystal Ray for the all-time lead in UMBC history. With two wins on the season, Sadowl, also a senior, moved into second place with 40 career victories.

Wins/Career
1. Lauren Nicholson   42
2. Amy Sadowl            40
3. Crystal Ray  38

K’s for Kearns

Kearns leads UMBC with 23 strikeouts. She recorded her first collegiate save against Delaware State in the final game of the Seahawk Classic, when she allowed one run but settled down to strike out the side on just 10 pitches to the heart of the Hornets’ lineup. She also pitched her first career no-hitter in the UMBC Kickoff Classic championship game, a 10-0 six-inning victory over Delaware State in which she struck out seven batters and walked only two. Kearns has held batters to a team-best .154 batting average.

French’s Quest

UMBC’s nine wins on the season gives head coach Joe French 149 in his career as Retriever skipper. He needs just four more to surpass Joy Figueroa’s 152 and become UMBC’s all-time winningest softball coach. As a collegiate coach in all sports, including softball, women’s basketball and tennis, French has 575 career victories and needs just 25 more to reach the 600 milestone.

On the Delaware Blue Hens:

Delaware is 2-3 on the season and have lost their last three. The Blue Hens opened their season last weekend at the Hampton Inn Pirate Clash at East Carolina. Megargel Quinn leads the team with a .455 batting average (5-for-11), while Kim Ovittore has a team-best three RBI and Katie Lee has the team’s only home run. The Blue Hens have only scored four runs in their three losses. Delaware finished 28-25 last season and tied for fifth place in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 6-11 conference record. The Blue Hens were picked fourth in the CAA preseason coaches poll.