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News Release

TEN QUESTIONS WITH MELANIE DENISCHUK

6/8/2006

Melanie Denischuk shattered many of the school's offensive records in 2006.

Melanie Denischuk

Junior

First Base

Poway, Calif./Hugh Sutherland (Carstairs, Alberta)/Indian River CC/Auburn

2006 Stats: Shattered school records for home runs (24), RBI (82), total bases (161), slugging percentage (.880), walks (39) and on-base percentage (.545) in a season… Posted a .432 batting average, tied for highest on team… Record 79 hits, including 10 doubles… Scored 45 runs… Committed only three errors in 359 chances for .992 fielding percentage.

2006 Awards: NFCA Mid-Atlantic All-Region First Team… America East Player of the Year… UMBC Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year… Five-time America East Player of the Week… Top 25 finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year… America East All-Championship Team… Two-time ECAC Player of the Week.

2006 Rankings: Led NCAA in RBI per game (1.28)… Ranked second in NCAA in home runs per game (0.38), third in slugging percentage (.880) and tied for 14th in batting average (.432)… Led America East in slugging percentage (.880), on-base percentage (.545), hits (79), RBI (82), home runs (24), total bases (161) and walks (39)… Also tied for league lead in batting average (.432) and ranked fifth in runs scored (45).

Notes: Transferred to UMBC in January after one semester at Auburn University… Spent the two previous years at Indian River Community College in Florida and red-shirted one year at Seminole State College in Oklahoma… Grew up in Carstairs, Alberta, Canada (just north of Calgary), but moved to Poway, Calif., a suburb of San Diego, last summer… Two-time first-team all-conference selection at Indian River… Named second-team all-state as a freshman and first-team all-state as a sophomore… Chosen to the NJCAA all-tournament team in 2005… Named Indian River top offensive player in 2005… Selected an NFCA Junior College All-American in 2005… Led Indian River to the state championship in 2004 and 2005, a second-place finish at nationals in 2005 and a third-place finish at nationals in 2004.

Q: You’ve been to four different colleges in four years. How did you end up here at UMBC?

Melanie Denischuk: I had originally planned on coming here (after junior college) but I always wanted to pursue my dream of playing at a big school. I thought that was exactly what I wanted, so I went to Auburn for a semester (Fall 2005), but it just wasn’t the fit for me. The big school wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. When I told Coach (Joe) French that I wanted to pursue my dream, he said to go for it but if it didn’t work out to give him a call. I thought it was awesome that he understood and I was really impressed by that. So with that in the back of my mind when it didn’t work out at Auburn, I decided to come here.

Q: You went from Canada to Oklahoma to Florida. How did you get each place?

MD: My brother was playing at school in Kansas and my parents talked to the Oklahoma (Seminole State) coach. Being from Canada, it’s a lot harder to get recruited, especially in Western Canada. Not many kids from my province go because we’re up north, we don’t travel to the better tournaments in the U.S. because it’s too much money. The coach said he wanted to see me play so when I went to visit my brother later in the year, I pitched for him. I was coming down as a pitcher. The coach wanted me, so I went to (Seminole State) and tore my ACL, and it just wasn’t a fit there. A friend of ours knew the coach in Florida (at Indian River), and it was between Florida and Central Arizona, both nationally acclaimed teams. I chose Indian River. I pitched my freshman year more than my sophomore year. I had groin injuries and my coach decided it was more valuable for me to hit than it is to pitch, so I stopped pitching.

Q: You hit 14 home runs in two seasons of junior college, but you hit 24 this year. How do you explain that?

MD: I really tried to focus more on my mental game this year. Physically, I liked my batting stance, I liked how I hit the ball. It was more looking for pitches early (in the count) that I could drive, trying to lay off pitches I couldn’t do much with early in the count, if I got to a full count, trying to foul a pitch off to make a pitcher make mistakes. Mainly just the mental part of the game, looking for better pitches, that sort of thing.

Q: You’ve gotten a number of awards this year. What do they mean to you?

MD: Of course it’s an honor to receive any award. Individual awards in a team sport are an honor, but at the same time you want the team awards, and of course we fell a little shy of our (conference) tournament championship. It’s an honor, it’s something I’ll always remember, but more than anything I would have rather had an America East tournament championship. Hopefully we can get it next year.

Q: What has been your biggest thrill or favorite moment on the field?

MD: This year I would have to say beating Maine at Maine (in the America East Championships). It was their home field, they were the No. 1 seed. We were coming off the weekend before with a close loss and a close win against them, so we knew we could beat Maine. It was really just a matter of beating Maine on their home field. Courtney (O’Hara, freshman outfielder) laid down an awesome squeeze (bunt) in the later innings to get Ashlea (Underwood, senior second baseman) home, which was awesome because we really hadn’t done much bunting. Just really being at the AEC’s and knocking Maine out (of the tournament).

Q: Who has been your biggest influence?

MD: My brother. He played college baseball, he went on to play some pro baseball. He’s probably one of the best hitting coaches I’ve ever met, and really he’s helped me with my hitting more than anything. He knows his hitting really well, especially the mental part of the game.

Q: What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

MD: That I hate the cold weather even though I’m from Canada. I’m probably the biggest wimp on the team when it comes to cold weather. The team makes fun of me because everyone else has maybe Under Armour on, maybe not even one layer, and I have two or three layers on.

Q: When did you start playing softball?

MD: I think when I was around six, but I didn’t play competitively until the later years of high school. I was always involved in a ton of different sports, especially in the summer. I swam, I played basketball, volleyball, badminton, track and field, curling, dance – I tried a little bit of everything. So I never really got seriously involved in softball until the end of high school, and even then we didn’t play the same type of schedule that Americans play, so my first true full season of softball was when I came to college.

Q: Do you get homesick being so far away from home?

MD: I used to. I’ve been away from home for long enough now that I don’t really. My first year at junior college was a little bit tougher. I went through some deaths in the family, I tore my ACL. It was kind of a hard year away from home to begin with. But every year after that has gotten easier and easier. It’s definitely hard when you first move away from home, especially if you’re used to having your parents every day like I was. You get done a softball game and you’re all excited and you don’t have anyone to go to. But now I’m used to it. Plus Ashlea (Underwood, a California native) has been a big help because even though I don’t have anyone to go to, she doesn’t either, so we just kind of talk about it.

Q: How frustrating was it to get walked so many times at the end of the season?

MD: It wasn’t really that frustrating because it is an honor. Another team is saying they really respect you. It got a little frustrating when we were losing and I was getting walked because getting walked is helpful to the team but it felt like it wasn’t always the most helpful, so I felt like I wasn’t always contributing my part, even though it wasn’t by choice, so that got a little frustrating. But otherwise it’s really not something to be frustrated about. I’m happy they walked me instead of hitting me like other teams were doing.