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News Release

Softball Opens America East Conference Play This Weekend Against Maine

3/27/2009

SCHEDULE ALERT: Saturday's doubleheader has been moved to 3 p.m. due to rain in the Baltimore area.


Jessica Vetock

BALTIMORE—The UMBC softball team (18-10) opens America East Conference play this weekend with a three-game series against Maine (20-13) at UMBC Softball Stadium. The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m., and a single game on Sunday at 11 a.m.

 

Welcome Back: The Retrievers will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the 1995 squad that was the first in program history to win 40 games, honoring all team members between games of Saturday’s doubleheader. Under head coach Joy Figueredo, UMBC posted a 41-13 record, including 9-4 in the Big South, and advanced to the conference championship game. The Retrievers rewrote nearly every record in the school’s history books, and their .332 team batting average still stands as the best-ever in a season by a UMBC squad. The team included UMBC Athletics Hall of Famers Amy Wolff and Jen Jewell, who were both honored on the All-Big South First Team that year.

 

On the Black Bears: Maine is 20-13 on the season and is riding a three-game winning streak… Outfielder Alexis Souhlaris leads the Black Bears in nearly every offensive category, including batting average (.398), hits (43), runs (34), home runs (11), RBI (25), total bases (83) and steals (13)… Second baseman Ashley Waters, the reigning America East Player of the Year, is the only other Black Bear regular batting over .300 at .354, and she has belted a team-best 12 doubles to go along with two triples and three homers… Four Maine pitchers have thrown at least 40 innings, including Souhlaris, who has posted a 6-3 record and a team-best 1.74 ERA.

 

UMBC vs. Maine All-Time: The Black Bears lead the all-time series, 10-7, but the Retrievers have won three in a row and six of the last eight meetings. As America East rivals, the teams have met at least three times each year since UMBC joined the conference in 2004, but they met just once prior, at the 2000 Rebel Games in Orlando, Fla. The Retrievers wept last season’s three-game series in Orono, Maine.

 

Streaking: The Retrievers saw their 11-game winning streak come to an end last weekend, but they have still won 13 of their last 15 games… Junior Amanda Fefel (Baltimore, Md./Catonsville) is riding a 15-game hitting streak, tied for the fifth-longest in UMBC history. She is hitting .511 (24-for-47) with 10 RBI and nine extra-base hits during that stretch… Sophomore Lauren Brummell (Hanover, Va./Hanover) has gotten a hit in 13 of the last 15 games and is batting .404 (21-for-52) with 12 runs scored and 10 extra-base hits in that span.

 

Weigman’s Whiffs: Sophomore hurler Stephanie Weigman (Elkridge, Md./Archbishop Spalding) has struck out 134 batters this season, already the fifth-best single-season total in UMBC history and the second-best ever among Retriever sophomores. She has struck out a career-high 12 batters twice this season and entered the week ranking 27th in the nation in strikeouts per seven innings (9.0). Last season, Weigman struck out a UMBC freshman-record 141 batters on the year, and she now has 275 in her career, ranking third all-time in school history.

 

UMBC Career Strikeouts

  1. Crystal Ray, 422, 1998-2000
  2. Lauren Nicholson, 387, 2003-06
  3. Stephanie Weigman, 275, 2008-Present
  4. Ashley Gray, 229, 2007-08

 

It Takes Two: The Retrievers have clubbed 49 doubles on the season, led by Brummell with 11 and sophomore Malorie Weller (Round Hill, Va./Loudoun Valley/Kennesaw State) with eight. The pair entered the week ranking 13th in the NCAA in doubles per game (0.4), while UMBC ranked ninth as a team (1.76). Brummell’s 11 two-baggers are tied for the fourth-most ever in a season by a Retriever sophomore.

 

Hot Hitting: UMBC is hitting .310 as a team this season, and six of the seven players with at least 60 at-bats are hitting better than .300. Fefel (.463) entered the week ranking eighth in the nation in batting average, while the Retrievers were ranked 16th in the country.

 

Milestone Watch: Fefel needs just seven more hits for 150 in her career and nine more RBI to reach 100. She also needs one more home run to become just the fifth player in school history to club 25 round-trippers on her career. In the circle, Weigman became the ninth pitcher in UMBC history to win 25 games when she earned the victory against Towson on Tuesday, and Fefel needs two more to join her. Weigman is 25 strikeouts shy of becoming the third Retriever ever to reach the 300-career plateau, while Fefel is 10 away from becoming the eighth player with 200.

 

Power Surge: Ten different Retrievers have hit home runs this season for just the second time in school history. In 2006, a UMBC-record 14 different players hit at least one round-tripper, as the Retrievers went on to set a school record with 80 homers on the season.

 

Coming Through in the Clutch: The Retrievers are hitting .374 with runners in scoring position, including .419 with the bases loaded and .552 with a runner on third and less than two outs. In addition, with two outs in the inning, UMBC is batting .294 with 56 RBI, led by Weller’s 13 two-out RBI.