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News Release

SOFTBALL COMPETES IN DELAWARE STATE BASH AT THE BEACH THIS WEEKEND

3/16/2006

Lauren Nicholson is 6-0 on the season and holds the UMBC record with 44 career victories.

Baltimore, Md.-The UMBC softball team travels to Georgetown, Del., this weekend for the Delaware State Bash at the Beach. The Retrievers will take on Niagara at 11 a.m. and St. Francis (Pa.) at 3 p.m. Friday, then face St. Joseph’s at 11 a.m. and Drexel at 5 p.m. on Saturday before entering championship bracket play all day Sunday.

Other teams competing at the Bash at the Beach, which is divided into four pools, are Pennsylvania, Delaware State, St. Francis (N.Y.), Marist, Delaware, Providence, LaSalle, Lafayette, St. Peter’s, Farleigh Dickinson, Rutgers, Lehigh, Mount St. Mary’s, Stony Brook and Monmouth. The Retrievers went 2-3 at the 2005 Bash at the Beach.

Dawg Bites…

The Retrievers are off to one of the best starts in program history at 16-5 on the season and have won 15 of their last 17 games… Sophomore center fielder Kali Shirk (North Wales, Pa./North Penn) is hitting .481 (13-for-27) with 14 runs scored during her current eight-game hitting streak. She has scored at least one run in each of UMBC’s last seven games and has scored three runs twice. Shirk leads the team with 24 runs scored and 24 hits, and she is hitting .364 on the season… The Retrievers are hitting .304 as a team, while opponents are batting only .234 against UMBC pitchers… Junior first baseman Melanie Denischuk (Poway, Calif./Hugh Sutherland (Carstairs, Alberta)/Indian River CC/Auburn) leads the team with six home runs, 29 RBI and 43 total bases, and sophomore catcher Stevie Shore (New Carlisle, Ohio/Northwestern) is tops with 11 extra-base hits (seven doubles, four home runs)… Junior Brittany Boyd (Baltimore, Md./North County/East Carolina) has posted a team-best 1.21 ERA.

Power Surge

The Retrievers have put on a power show early on this season, smashing 28 home runs in their first 21 games, including at least one by 11 different players, a new UMBC record. The 2003 Retrievers had nine different players with a home run. Freshman Courtney O’Hara (Pasadena, Md./Institute of Notre Dame) set was the record-breaking 10th Retriever with a roundtripper, as she hit an inside-the-parker in the second game of the doubleheader against Delaware on March 14. The next inning, freshman Michelle Olivieri (Brockport, N.Y./The Aquinas Institute) became the 11th player with a grand slam.

Junior third baseman Reilly Ward (Olney, Md./Sherwood) has hit five homers to give her 21 in her career, moving her just one behind Taryn McDonald for second place all-time in UMBC history.

Home Runs/Career
1. Kristie Pickeral         40
2. Taryn McDonald      22
3. Reilly Ward            21

Speedy Gonzalez

Shirk has a career-high 23 steals on the season, the sixth-best single-season total in UMBC history. She is also a perfect 40-for-40 on the base paths in her career, a school record for most consecutive successful stolen bases and tied for sixth all-time for career steals. Shirk stole 17 bases in all of 2005, now the seventh-best total in team history. Her 23 steals this year ranks sixth in a single season for the Retrievers.

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
    Kali Shirk   40
8. Stacy Reynolds         34

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. Kali Shirk               23        2006
7. Lisa Boone               17        2002
    Kali Shirk                 17        2005

1-2 Punch

Senior Lauren Nicholson (Audubon, N.J./Paul VI) is 6-0 on the season, giving her 44 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 three wins on the season, senior Amy Sadowl (Horsham, Pa./Hatboro Horsham) is in second place with 41 career victories.

Wins/Career
1. Lauren Nicholson   44
2. Amy Sadowl            41
3. Crystal Ray  38

K’s for Kearns

Freshman Krista Kearns (Santa Fe Springs, Calif./Santa Fe) leads UMBC with 44 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 .199 average.

Denischuk, Kearns Honored

Denischuk and Kearns earned the first weekly awards handed out by the America East Conference, which covered all games through March 12. Denischuk was named Co-Player of the Week, while Kearns was tabbed Rookie of the Week.

French is Tops

Head coach Joe French became UMBC’s all-time winningest softball coach with the Retrievers’ 9-0 win over UMES on the second day of the UMBC Dawg Pound Tournament last weekend. The victory was the 153rd of his career, which surpassed Joy Figueroa’s 152. French has 156 wins heading into the Bash at the Beach.

As a collegiate coach in all sports, including softball, women’s basketball and tennis, French has 581 career victories and needs just 19 more to reach the 600 milestone.

Tournament Success

The Retrievers have played in three tournaments over the first three weekends of the season. They won the consolation championship at the season-opening UNC-Wilmington Seahawk Classic. Ward and 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.

The next weekend, the Retrievers opened their home schedule with the Second Annual UMBC Kickoff Classic, and they were crowned champions of the tournament with a perfect 5-0 record. Senior Jessica Griffith (Linthicum, Md./Glen Burnie/Anne Arundel) 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 Kearns, Boyd, Sadowl, Nicholson, Denischuk, Ward, Shore, senior second baseman Ashlea Underwood (Visalia, Calif./Central Valley Christian/Reedley JC), and sophomore shortstop Dana Shepherd (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills).

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.

Finally, UMBC won its own Dawg Pound Tournament last weekend with a perfect 6-0 mark. Denischuk and Shirk were named co-MVPs, and Kearns was tabbed Most Outstanding Pitcher.

In the six games on the weekend, Denischuk hit .562 (9-for-16) with four runs scored, two home runs, 11 RBI and 16 total bases. She held a 1.000 slugging percentage and reached base at a .579 clip, and she drove in the game-winning run with a double in the championship game against St. Francis (Pa.)

Shirk led the Retrievers with 10 hits and 11 runs scored on the weekend, as she hit .476 (10-for-21) and posted two doubles, two home runs, 18 total bases and four RBI. She also stole five bases, held an .857 slugging percentage and a .476 on-base average.

Kearns won three games and posted a stellar 1.14 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 12.1 innings, as she allowed only two runs on eight hits and two walks. She also went 5-for-9 (.562) with a pinch-hit home run, two runs scored and two RBI at the plate.

Other Retrievers on the all-tournament team were Ward, Underwood and Nicholson.

After this weekend’s Bash at the Beach, the Retrievers host another tournament, next weekend’s UMBC Spring Classic.

On the Niagara Purple Eagles:

Niagara is 6-3 on the season and has won its last four games after finishing 4-2 at the Mason Dixon Classic last weekend. Two-time Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week Jennifer Yee leads the league in hitting at .619 and has a 1.145 slugging percentage and .636 on-base average. Current MAAC Player of the Week Tory Healy is hitting .500 with 14 RBI. In the circle, Tiffany McCrory has a 1.77 ERA and a 4-1 record with 21 strikeouts in five appearances.

On the St. Francis Red Flash:

St. Francis is 7-12 on the season after going 4-2 at UMBC’s Dawg Pound Tournament last weekend. Both losses were at the hands of the Retrievers, including a 5-4 defeat in the championship game. Second baseman Kelly Slingwine was named Northeast Conference Player of the Week after leading the Red Flash to their second-place finish. She hit .560 (14-for-25) with four three-hit games and four extra-base hits. Slingwine, Nicole Bender, Angela Rocco and Kara Stroup were all named to the all-tournament team. The Red Flash’s seven wins are just two shy of last year’s total. They are 7-4 since beginning the season 0-8 with a tough southern schedule.

On the St. Joseph’s Hawks:

The Hawks are 3-11 on the season and are led at the plate by Dani Gonzales, who is hitting .311 with five doubles and seven RBI. In the circle, Lauren Cognigni has posted a team-best 3.65 ERA, 63 strikeouts and .212 opponent batting average in eight appearances.

On the Drexel Dragons:

Drexel is 3-7 on the year and has lost three of its last four games. Christina Rodriguez leads the team with a .405 average, and Lena Aiken has a team-best eight RBI. Amanda Heyser is tops with a 3.69 ERA and 27 strikeouts in the circle.