UMBC

Amanda Fefel

Amanda Page

Emily Thompson

Jessica Vetock

BALTIMORE—The UMBC softball team (24-22, 5-10 AE) concludes the 2010 season this weekend with a three-game series against America East rival Albany (18-20, 7-7 AE) at UMBC Softball Stadium. The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. and a single game on Sunday at 12 p.m. The Retrievers will celebrate Senior Day with a pregame ceremony prior to the series finale.

Fond Farewell: Before Sunday’s series finale against the Great Danes, the Retrievers will bid farewell to four seniors – shortstop Jessica Vetock (Pasadena, Md./Institute of Notre Dame/CCBC-Catonsville), catcher Amanda Page (Batavia, N.Y./Batavia/Monroe CC), right fielder Emily Thompson (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Niagara Falls) and third baseman/pitcher Amanda Fefel (Baltimore, Md./Catonsville).

Last Time Out: The Retrievers took two of three games at Hartford last weekend. UMBC dropped the first game, 5-3, despite a home run by Fefel and a two-run double by junior first baseman Malorie Weller (Round Hill, Va./Loudoun Valley/Kennesaw State). The Retrievers rebounded to take the nightcap, 7-5, in eight innings. UMBC trailed, 5-1, in the seventh inning but rallied to tie the game and went on to win in the eighth on a two-run single by junior designated player Lauren O'Malley (Pasadena, Md./Archbishop Spalding). The Retrievers then scored four runs in the first to take the rubber match, 4-2. Freshman Heather Brown (Pasadena, Md./Northeast) earned the victory, allowing just one earned run on four hits.

On the Great Danes: Albany is 18-20 on the season and 7-7 in conference play. The Great Danes are coming off a non-conference doubleheader sweep of Siena last weekend. First baseman Gina Mason leads Albany with a .373 average, eight homers and 30 RBI, while outfielder Jessica Bergin is batting .429 with a conference-best eight doubles against America East opponents. Leah McIntosh has posted a 7-5 record and a 2.45 ERA with 89 strikeouts in 71.1 innings of work. Albany is batting just .246 as a team.

Inside the Series: UMBC trails Albany, 18-6, in the all-time series, including 9-2 in the last 11 games. Last season, the Great Danes took two of three regular-season games, then knocked the Retrievers out of the America East Championship with a 5-1 victory. Junior second baseman Lauren Brummell (Hanover, Va./Hanover) is a career .286 hitter (8-for-28) with a double and a home run in nine career games against the Great Danes, while junior Stephanie Weigman (Elkridge, Md./Archbishop Spalding) is 1-3 with a 3.77 ERA in five career outings.

Head of the Class: Earlier this week, Thompson was selected to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District Second Team, which recognizes student-athletes for their accomplishments on the field and in the classroom. An interdisciplinary studies major with a focus in sports marketing, Thompson boasts a 3.65 cumulative grade-point average, and she is batting a career-high .336 this season.

French’s Milestones: UMBC’s second victory at Delaware on March 9 was the 500th in head coach Joe French’s career, and the 7-5 comeback win at Hartford last Saturday was his 300th as the Retriever mentor. French has coached for 17 years at three different schools, winning 95 games in four seasons at Mansfield University, 119 in four years at SUNY-Geneseo and 301 in nine years at UMBC. He is the Retrievers’ all-time winningest coach.

Comeback Kids: UMBC has won seven games when tied or trailing after six innings, including a 7-5 victory over Hartford on Saturday. Trailing, 5-1, heading into the seventh, the Retrievers rallied to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Then in the eighth, O’Malley drove in the go-ahead runs with a two-out single, and the Retrievers won, 7-5. UMBC posted four straight wins in their last at-bat from March 19-24, including a pair of seven-run rallies, and also defeated La Salle with a seventh-inning comeback on April 13. In addition, with the score tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh against Boston University on April 17, Page hit a walk-off home run to give the Retrievers the win.

Power Surge: Fefel’s home run against Hartford on Saturday was the 41st of her career, breaking Kristie Pickeral’s UMBC record. Thompson ranks 10th all-time with 17 career round-trippers.

UMBC Career Home Runs

1.       Amanda Fefel, 41, 2007-Present

2.   Kristie Pickeral, 40, 2002-05

3.       Melanie Denischuk, 30, 2006-07

Reilly Ward, 30, 2004-07

      5.   Dana Shepherd, 28, 2005-08

      6.   Taryn McDonald, 24, 1996-99

      7.   Amy Wolff, 21, 1994-97

      8.   Stevie Shore, 19, 2005-06

      9.   Ashley Gray, 18, 2007-08

      10.  Emily Thompson, 17, 2007-Present

Power Surge, Part II: When Fefel hit her 10th home run of the season against Maine on April 25, she joined Pickeral as the only Retrievers ever to reach double digits three times in their careers. Fefel hit a career-high 13 home runs as a freshman in 2007 and blasted 10 as a junior this season before smashing 11 in 2010. She is also tied for fourth in the America East this season.

UMBC Single-Season Home Runs

1. Melanie Denischuk, 24, 2006
2. Lauren Hebb, 15, 2003
3. Stevie Shore, 14, 2006
4. Amanda Fefel, 13, 2007
5. Kristie Pickeral, 12, 2003

Reilly Ward, 12, 2005

Reilly Ward, 12, 2006

8.      Stephanie Happel, 11, 2001

      Amanda Fefel, 11, 2010

10.    Kristie Pickeral, 10, 2002

Kristie Pickeral, 10, 2004

Ashley Gray, 10, 2008

Amanda Fefel, 10, 2009

Bicentennial: Fefel became the eighth player in UMBC history to collect 200 career hits with a single in the first game against Longwood on April 10, and she now has 217 base knocks, which ranks seventh all-time at UMBC.

UMBC Career Hits

1.       Kristie Pickeral, 263, 2002-05

2.       Deanna Vecchio, 258, 1999-2002

3.       Lisa Boone, 249, 2000-03

4.       Dana Shepherd, 239, 2005-08

5.       Carrie Lycett, 237, 1994-97

6.       Amy Wolff, 227, 1994-97

7.       Amanda Fefel, 213, 2007-Present

Three’s Company: Fefel tied UMBC’s single-game record with three home runs in the second game against Temple on March 24, equaling the mark set by Deanna Vecchio in 2002 and matched by Pickeral in 2004.

Climbing the Charts: Fefel also ranks among UMBC’s all-time leaders in a number of other categories, including extra-base hits (T-2nd, 75), RBI (3rd, 104), total bases (3rd, 377), slugging percentage (4th, .586), walks (6th, 62), on-base percentage (8th, .396), games played (8th, 204), games started (T-8th, 203), at-bats (T-8th, 643), batting average (10th, .337) and runs (10th, 105).

Weigman’s Whiffs: Weigman struck out the 600th batter of her career on April 18 against Boston University. UMBC’s all-time record holder with 626, she has over 200 more whiffs than any other Retriever pitcher. Fefel ranks fourth with 288.

UMBC Career Strikeouts

1.       Stephanie Weigman, 626, 2008-Present

2.       Crystal Ray, 422, 1998-2000

3.       Lauren Nicholson, 387, 2003-06

4.       Amanda Fefel, 288, 2007-Present

5.       Ashley Gray, 229, 2007-08

Weigman’s Whiffs, Part II: Weigman has struck out 192 batters this season, the second-highest single-season total in school history to her record 293 K’s in 2009. She now has three of UMBC’s top five all-time marks.

UMBC Single-Season Strikeouts

1.      Stephanie Weigman, 293, 2009

2.      Stephanie Weigman, 192, 2010

3.      Crystal Ray, 172, 2000

4.      Crystal Ray, 169, 1999

5.      Stephanie Weigman, 141, 2008

Winning it All: Weigman ranks second all-time at UMBC with 47 career wins, 10 behind current Retriever pitching coach Lauren Nicholson. In addition, Fefel became the eighth Retriever ever to win 30 games when she earned the victory against Mount St. Mary’s on March 21.

UMBC Career Wins

1.       Lauren Nicholson, 57, 2003-06

2.       Stephanie Weigman, 47, 2008-Present

3.       Amy Sadowl, 43, 2003-06

4.       Crystal Ray, 38, 1998-2000

5.       Jackie Ruffin, 35, 1997-2000

Angie Amedro, 35, 1999-2002

7.      Amanda Fefel, 32, 2007-Present

Climbing the Charts: Weigman also ranks among UMBC’s all-time leaders in a number of other categories including innings pitched (2nd, 566.0), games started (2nd, 81), appearances (2nd, 110), complete games (3rd, 56), opponent batting average (4th, .222), saves (T-4th, 4), ERA (9th, 2.52) and shutouts (T-7th, 8). Fefel is also among the top 10 in several pitching categories, including appearances (5th, 85), winning percentage (5th, .653), innings pitched (8th, 332.1), games started (8th, 53) and shutouts (T-10th, 6).

Saving the Day: Fefel is UMBC’s all-time saves leader with eight in her career, and she broke the school mark for saves in a single-season with four in 2010.

Extra, Extra: The Retrievers have played seven extra-inning games this season, the most since playing seven in 2005. UMBC is 4-3 in contests lasting longer than seven frames this year.

One and Done: UMBC pitchers tossed three one-hit shutouts last month. On April 6, Fefel defeated Georgetown, 2-0, and she did not allow a hit after a first-inning single, striking out a season-high seven batters. The next day, Weigman fanned a career-high 15 in a 2-0 win over Coppin State and did not allow a hit until the fifth. Then on April 14, the pair combined on the gem in a 4-0 win over the Eagles. Fefel retired the first nine batters of the game before giving way to Weigman, whose only hit allowed was an infield single in the sixth.

It’s Outta Here: A pair of Retriever freshmen – Brown and infielder Ashley Scroggin (Stafford, Va./North Stafford) – watched their first career hits sail over the fence for a home run. Brown’s round-tripper came on March 7 against Brown University in her seventh career at-bat, while Scroggin’s occurred against Howard on March 17 in her third career trip to the plate.

In the Clutch: UMBC has been extremely successful driving in runners who reach third base with less than two outs, batting .522 in those situations.  Fefel leads the way with eight hits in nine at-bats under those circumstances, but every Retriever with at least four at-bats in those situations is batting at least .333.

In the Clutch, Part II: Fefel is also batting .485 (16-for-33) with runners in scoring position, leading four Retrievers hitting better than .340 with runners on second or third.

Rally on Two: Five Retrievers are batting .300 or better with two outs, led by sophomore left fielder Kaela Mason (Bel Air, Md./Harford Tech) at .360 (9-for-25), while Thompson has a team-best 18 hits with two down, batting .353, and Weller leads the Retrievers with nine two-out RBI.

In a Pinch: The Retrievers have 15 pinch hits this season, including six by O’Malley and five by Mason. Pinch hitters are batting .283 on the year