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News Release

Softball Heads to League-Leading Albany for Three-Game Series

4/21/2011

Junior Ashley Carver

BALTIMORE—The UMBC softball team (20-18, 5-7 AE) visits America East-leading Albany (17-18, 8-1 AE) this weekend for a three-game series. The teams will play a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 1 p.m. and a single game on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Last Time Out: The Retrievers dropped two of three to America East rival Binghamton last weekend. Senior second baseman Lauren Brummell (Hanover, Va./Hanover) went 5-for-9 and scored three runs, while junior catcher Angela Yannone (Pasadena, Md./Chesapeake) hit a three-run homer in UMBC’s 7-5 game one victory.

On the Great Danes: Albany is 17-18 on the season and 8-1 in America East play and has won five in a row after sweeping Maine last weekend. First baseman Gina Mason ranks fifth in the league with a .373 average and is tied for the league lead with 10 doubles. She is also tops on the team with three homers and 19 RBIs. Diane MacDowell ranks second in the conference with 21 stolen bases. Infielder Andrianna Walraven is the reigning America East Player of the Week. A pair of newcomers – Brittany Schweiger and Brittany MacFawn – lead the Great Danes in the circle. Schweiger is 5-7 with a 2.31 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 72.2 innings of work, while MacFawn has posted a 9-5 record and a 2.34 ERA with 99 strikeouts and four shutouts in 101.2 innings. Albany, which was picked to finish second in the America East preseason poll, is batting .250 as a team but holding its opponents to just a .232 average.

Inside the Series: UMBC trails Albany, 20-7, in the all-time series, including 11-3 in the last 14 games. Last season, the Great Danes took two of three meetings. Brummell is a career .289 hitter with two doubles and a home run in 12 career games against Albany.

Power Surge: Sophomore right fielder Ashley Scroggin (Stafford, Va./North Stafford) leads UMBC and ranks second in the America East with 10 home runs this season. She is one of just 14 Retrievers ever to hit 10 homers in a season. Just a sophomore, she has already moved into UMBC’s top 20 for career home runs with 11. Last season, Scroggin collected just one hit in limited action, but that one hit was a round-tripper.

Running Away With It: The Retrievers are 51-for-63 in stolen base attempts this season, their most steals since 2006, when  Kali Shirk-led team swiped 82 bases. UMBC stole just 47 bases in the last two years combined (25 in 2010, 22 in 2009). The Retrievers re led on the base paths by senior center fielder Lynn Pronobis (Waldorf, Md./McDonough), who is 21-for-23 this season, ranking second in the America Est. The last time a Retriever stole at least 20 bases was Shirk with 21 in 2008.

Winning It All: Senior Stephanie Weigman (Elkridge, Md./Archbishop Spalding) became UMBC’s all-time wins leader when she defeated Stony Brook, 6-1, on April 3. She did not allow an earned run and surrendered just five hits in the complete-game effort.

UMBC Career Wins

1. Stephanie Weigman, 61, 2008-Present
2. Lauren Nicholson, 57, 2003-06
3. Amy Sadowl, 43, 2003-06

Weigman’s Whiffs: Weigman, who entered the season as UMBC’s career strikeout leader, picked up her 700th career whiff on March 26 against Maine, and she now has 743 – over 300 more than any other Retriever, as her closest competitor, Crystal Ray, had 422. In addition, Weigman fanned her 100th batter of the season last Thursday at Mount St. Mary’s, making her the only Retriever ever to strike out at least 100 batters in four straight seasons.

UMBC Career Strikeouts

1. Stephanie Weigman, 743, 2008-Present
2. Crystal Ray, 422, 1998-2000
3. Lauren Nicholson, 387, 2003-06

She’s No. 1: Weigman is also UMBC’s all-time leader in career innings pitched (710.0), games started (106) and appearances (138), and she ranks second in complete games (66) and saves (5) and sixth in shutouts (9).

Double Your Pleasure: Brummell leads the Retrievers and is tied for tops in the America East with 10 doubles this season, and she ranks third all-time at UMBC with 45 career two-baggers. Brummell, who set the school single-season doubles record with 20 in 2009, also ranks fourth all-time with nine triples and seventh with 69 extra-base hits.

UMBC Career Doubles

1. Lisa Boone, 56, 2000-03
2. Reilly Ward, 46, 2004-07
3. Lauren Brummell, 45, 2008-Present

It’s Outta Here: Senior left fielder Julia Culotta (Street, Md./North Harford/Tennessee) is tied with former teammate Ashley Gray for ninth all-time at UMBC with 18 career home runs, while Brummell is just three behind her, ranking 13th with 15 career round-trippers.

UMBC Career Home Runs

      6.   Taryn McDonald, 24, 1996-99

      7.   Amy Wolff, 21, 1994-97

      8.   Stevie Shore, 19, 2005-06

      9.   Ashley Gray, 18, 2007-08

            Julia Culotta, 18, 2008-Present

      11. Emily Thompson, 17, 2007-10

      12. Crystal Ray, 16, 1998-2000

      13. Lauren Hebb, 15, 2003

            Lauren Brummell, 15, 2008-Present

15.  Carrie Lycett, 13, 1994-97

Beasts in America East: The Retrievers lead the America East in batting average (.292), on-base percentage (.383), runs scored (195), hits (293), doubles (56), total bases (451) and walks (137). UMBC boasts five of the top 15 hitters in the conference in Culotta (.396, 2nd), junior first baseman Katie Ferguson (.353, 6th), Brummell (.341, 8th), Scroggin (.319, 13th) and Yannone (.316, 14th). UMBC is the only team in the league with five players batting better than .300.