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News Release

SOFTBALL ON ROAD FOR THREE AMERICA EAST GAMES AGAISNT VERMONT

4/21/2006

Kali Shirk ranks second in the nation in steals per game.

Baltimore, Md.-The UMBC softball team heads to Vermont this weekend for a three-game America East Conference series against the Catamounts. Action on both Saturday and Sunday will begin at 12 p.m., with a doubleheader scheduled for Saturday and a single game on Sunday. The Retrievers are 39-12 on the season and in third place in the conference with a 7-4 league record heading into the weekend.

A Look Ahead

The Catamounts are in seventh place in the America East with a 12-19 overall record and a 3-8 league mark after taking two of three from Stony Brook last weekend. Whitney Borisenok leads the team with a .325 batting average and 12 RBI, while Kate Ramsey is tops with four home runs and Kate Haber ranks first with 14 runs scored and 16 steals. Haber ranks ninth in the NCAA with 0.62 steals per game. Aimee Kern has posted a team-best 1.91 ERA and 123 strikeouts with a 10-9 record. She shut out the Seawolves twice last weekend.

Last Time vs. the Catamounts

The Retrievers took the first meeting of the season, 2-0, in the Dawg Pound Tournament. Freshman Krista Kearns blanked the Catamounts on three hits while striking out eight. UMBC scored single runs in the third and fifth off Vermont starter Sara Burke. The Catamounts lead the all-time series between the two teams, 4-3.

Power Surge

Junior first baseman Melanie Denischuk has shattered the school single-season home run and RBI records. Her 22 homers on the season surpass Lauren Hebb’s previous mark of 15, which was set in 2003. In addition, she has 78 RBI on the season, surpassing Kristie Pickeral’s 59 in 2003.

Denischuk’s 22 roundtrippers are tied for the most in the NCAA this season with Louisiana-Lafayette’s Danyele Gomez. In addition, her 0.45 home runs per game rank second in the country to only Gomez. Denischuk also leads the nation in RBI (78) and RBI per game (1.59), and she ranks second in slugging percentage (.979) and seventh in batting average (.473).

In addition, sophomore catcher Stevie Shore is tied for 13th in the country with a career-high 14 home runs, and junior third baseman Reilly Ward is tied for 25th with 12, which ties her career high from 2005. As a team, the Retrievers rank fifth in the NCAA with 1.47 home runs per game and are one of only three teams with more than 70 long balls.

Three 2006 Retrievers rank among the top five in single-season home run totals. In addition to Denischuk’s record 22, Shore’s 13 rank third and Ward’s 12 tie her total last year, as well as Pickeral’s 2003 total for fourth-most.

Fourteen different Retrievers have hit home runs this season, a new UMBC record. Freshman outfielder Courtney O’Hara was the 10th player to homer in 2006, breaking the old mark of nine set in 2003 with an inside-the park home run in the second game of a doubleheader against LaSalle on March 14. The Retrievers also set a new record with 79 home runs, surpassing the old school mark of 42 set last season.

Ward Climbs Charts

Ward has hit 12 home runs this season to give her 28 in her career, second-most ever at UMBC. Ward has also joined the Retriever top-10 list in several other categories, including hits (10th, 149), runs (7th, 97), doubles (T-4th, 37), extra-base hits (3rd, 65) and RBI (6th, 112).

Speedy Gonzalez

After stealing a school-record 45 consecutive bases to start her career, sophomore center fielder Kali Shirk was caught stealing for the first time in her career on March 24. She is now 38-for-40 on the season, tied for the third-highest single-season total in school history, and she ranks fourth all-time with 55 steals. Shirk ranks second in the NCAA in steals per game in 2006. The 45 consecutive stolen bases ranks 10th all-time in NCAA history.

Run Machine

With 28 runs over two games in the doubleheader sweep of Coppin State on Tuesday, the Retrievers reached 400 runs scored on the season, shattering the previous school record of 353 with 12 games yet to be played. Shirk leads the team with 50 runs scored, the fourth-highest single season total in UMBC history, and she ranks 18th in the country in runs per game in 2006. The Retrievers lead the nation with 7.84 runs per game, and they have scored in double digits 16 times this season, accounting for 15 wins.

Retrievers in the NCAA

In addition to home runs and scoring, UMBC ranks among the national leaders in several other categories, including doubles (6th), batting average (3rd), winning percentage (20th) and slugging percentage (2nd).

Records Falling

The Retrievers have broken six team records this season. In addition to runs scored and home runs, the 2006 Retrievers have toppled school marks in extra-base hits (176), RBI (363), walks (192) and total bases (839).

Several Retrievers are also moving up the single-season charts, as well. In addition to holding the home run and RBI records, Denischuk set a new mark in total bases (143) and is tied for the most-ever extra-base hits in a season (30). She also ranks seventh in hits (69). Ward and Shore are tied for seventh with 48 RBI in 2006, and sophomore shortstop Dana Shepherd’s 41 RBI rank 10th. Ward and Shore are fifth and seventh, respectively, in extra-base hits, and Ward’s 14 doubles are tied for sixth.

K is for Kearns

Kearns leads the Retrievers with 95 strikeouts, the fifth-highest single-season total in UMBC history. She 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.

1-2 Punch

Senior Lauren Nicholson is off to the best start of her career at 15-1, giving her a UMBC-record 53 wins in four years. Senior Amy Sadowl started the second game against Coppin State on Tuesday, making her first pitching appearance since March 19, and picked up the victory, her first since March 12. She is second on the all-time wins list with 42. Nicholson and Sadowl are also 1-2 in UMBC history in innings pitched and games started, and Nicholson is also the all-time record-holder in complete games (62) while Sadowl ranks fourth in that category (42). In addition, Nicholson is second all-time in strikeouts (344) and Sadowl is fifth (206).

Going Streaking

Five Retrievers have posted double-digit hit streaks this season. Shepherd’s 20-gamer is the longest in 2006 and the third-longest in school history. Senior Jessica Griffith owns the longest current hit streak at nine games, which dates to the second game of the Albany series on April 9. She is hitting .433 with four doubles, a home run and seven runs scored during that time.

Player of the Year Watch

Denischuk was named one of 25 finalists for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award. The list will be cut to 10 on May 10, and three finalists will be named on May 31. The final three players will travel to Oklahoma City for the announcement of the winner during the 2006 NCAA Women’s College World Series. Denischuk has been honored by the America East as the Player of the Week five times this season, including each of the last four weeks, and she leads the conference in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, among other offensive categories. She has also earned ECAC Player of the Week nods twice this season.

Dawg Bites…

UMBC has won six of its last seven games after Tuesday’s doubleheader sweep over Coppin State… The Retrievers are batting .355 as a team and have out-scored their opponents, 400-174, in 51 games this season. Eight hitters with more than 40 at-bats are batting above .300, and two are hitting about .400… Denischuk has posted 22 multi-hit games and 21 multi-RBI games to lead the Retrievers. She has driven in five runs twice this season… Ward, Shirk and Shepherd have all reached the 100-hit milestone in 2006… 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. French now has 191 wins in his UMBC career. He also reached the 600-victory mark as a collegiate coach in the sports of softball, women’s basketball and tennis combined with the Retrievers’ game one win against Binghamton on April 12.