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Last updated: Wednesday, May 9, 10:51 a.m.
Sports

Softball team continues homestand hosting Albany

By Jim Doughty
Posted on April 17, 2003, at 12:00 a.m.
University of Maine sophomore Jenna Merchant takes a cut at a pitch during the Black Bears' 1-0 win over the University of Stony Brook Saturday. Merchant had a pair of hits in the game and also picked up the win in the circle, tossing seven shutout innin
Jonathan White
University of Maine sophomore Jenna Merchant takes a cut at a pitch during the Black Bears' 1-0 win over the University of Stony Brook Saturday. Merchant had a pair of hits in the game and also picked up the win in the circle, tossing seven shutout innin

Now that the chore of sweeping the University of Stony Brook is out of the way, there is no time to rest for the University of Maine softball team.

The Black Bears notched four victories against Stony Brook over the weekend and improved to 15-13 overall and 4-2 in America East play. UMaine head coach Deb Smith said there is still room for improvement before the team hosts the University of Albany this weekend.

“The sweep was absolutely huge for us,” Smith said. “It puts us in great position going into this weekend.

“We’re going to go right back to the basics to make sure we’re still hitting the ball hard. We’ll be working on our execution. We left a lot of runners on base.”

Fortunately, runners left on base did not hurt the Black Bears, as stellar pitching performances by sophomore Jenna Merchant and freshman Sarah Bennis and timely hitting allowed Maine to take all four from Stony Brook.

Now that UMaine has gotten a taste of winning at home, Smith wants some of this past weekend’s momentum to carry over to Friday and Saturday’s games with Albany.

“We want to keep them relaxed so they can just be flowing when they come into Albany on Friday,” she said.

UMaine has been led by the pitching combo of Merchant, who hasn’t given up a run in 21 consecutive innings, and Bennis. Both pitchers have seven wins for the year and have combined to throw 173 innings.

Offensively, the Black Bears have been sparked by the one-two punch of sophomore Jess Brady and freshman Brittany Cheney. The two underclassmen are ranked either first or second in nine different offensive categories for the Black Bears.

Brady has 16 stolen bases for the season and is inching closer to the UMaine season record for steals in a season (18). Cheney, an Abington, Mass., native, leads the team in runs and is tied with Brady, fellow freshman Molly McKinney and sophomore Lauren Dulkis for first in runs batted in with 11.

UMaine will face a strong Albany team that comes to Orono with a 4-1 conference record. Just like the Black Bears, Albany is led offensively by underclassmen. Freshman Meagan Larsen, who was named America East Rookie of the Week earlier in the season, leads the team in batting with a .366 average.

Despite being picked to finish sixth in the America East standings, Albany has looked strong all season. Playing in the same Rebel Spring Games in Osceola, Fla., the Great Danes won eight out of 10 games. The team has already picked up three conference wins against Hartford and last year Albany took three of five games from the Black Bears, including a win in the consolation game of the America East Tournament.

However, Smith is optimistic that when her club hosts Albany this weekend, it will continue to gain momentum in league play.

“These guys know that they can play with anyone,” Smith said. “It’s when they play within themselves that they play their best, and that’s what we are basically trying to keep them focused on.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2003, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.

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