University of Massachusets Athletics
Balschmiter At Pan Am Qualifier With Team USA
July 30, 2009 | Softball
July 30, 2009
AMHERST, Mass. - Recently graduated UMass softball pitcher Brandice Balschmiter will be wearing the red, white, and blue with Team USA at the Pan American Games Qualifying Tournament in Maracay, Venezuela. The Tournament begins with pool play on July 31 and runs through the August 9 medal games.
Balschmiter was chosen for the Pan Am Qualifying Tournament team following USA Softball's training camp in Chula Vista, Calif. in June. The Pan Am Games are scheduled for October 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico. The tournament also serves as qualifier for the 2010 Softball World Championship, to be held in Oklahoma City next July.
Besides Balschmiter's Pan American Qualifying Team, USA Softball also announced its National Team, which will compete at both the Canada Cup in Surrey, B.C. and the KFC World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City, and its Japan Cup Team, which will compete in Sendai, Japan, July 31-August 2. The three rosters will represent a new era of USA Softball as there are only eight returning players from the 2008 Olympic team.
Balschmiter and Team USA begin play on Friday with a game against the British Virgin Islands. Over the following six days they will take on Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Colombia, Equador, Brazil, Antillas, Belize, and El Salvador. The condensed schedule is expected to the team's pitching staff, which besides Balschmiter, includes former All-Americans Monica Abbott and Angela Tincher, as well as two UMass opponents from 2009, Michigan's Nikki Nemitz and UCLA's Megan Langenfeld.
In 2009, Balschmiter was named a NFCA All-American and was taken with the fifth overall pick of the National Pro Fastpitch draft by the Chicago Bandits. The Newark, N.Y. native was named Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year for a record fourth time, while also earning her fourth-straight A-10 Championship Most Outstanding Player, A-10 All-Conference First Team, NFCA All-Region First Team honors, and Easton All-American honors.
The 6-1 right-hander finished her career at or near the top of the UMass record books in almost every pitching category. Her single-season record 34 wins in 2009 gave her 126 in her career, against just 33 losses. Her win total is the most in UMass history and ranks ninth in NCAA history. She also became just the 26th player in NCAA history to eclipse the 1,200-strikeout mark in a career, doing so in the Atlantic 10 Championship. Her 1,218 strikeouts are second to only Danielle Henderson in UMass history. Her 1,089 innings pitched are the most of any pitcher in school history.
