May 6, 2010
Weekly Notes 
AMHERST, Mass. -
The No. 20/24 UMass softball team (34-7-1, 13-0-1 A-10) concludes the regular season with four home games this weekend at the UMass Softball Complex. On Friday, the Minutewomen host Temple (18-27, 7-9 A-10) at 3 p.m. before wrapping up the two-game set on Saturday with a noon game. Saturday will be Senior Day as well as the Third Annual FanFest. The regular season comes to a close on Sunday with a noon twinbill against Saint Joseph's (25-14, 9-5 A-10).
UMass is now unbeaten in its last 20 games, going 19-0-1 dating back to a March 21 loss to Long Beach State in San Diego. The Minutewomen have outscored the opposition 125-22 during the streak, which is the longest active unbeaten streak in the country.
The Minutewomen began the week with an exciting 3-1 victory over Boston College on Wednesday. Meghan Carta's sixth-inning two-run home run was the difference.
Sophomore pitcher Sara Plourde, came into this week's action leading the country in strikeouts (463) and in Wednesday's game broke Danielle Henderson's UMass single-season strikeouts record of 465. With nine strikeouts, Plourde finished the game at 472.
Last week, UMass was 4-0, all A-10 victories at home. On April 27, the Minutewomen swept a doubleheader from Rhode Island, 9-2 and 3-1. On Sunday, they swept a pair from Dayton, 8-2 and 5-4, keeping the Minutewomen unbeaten in A-10 play and atop the conference standings.
UMass began the season by going 4-1 at the FIU Combat Classic in Miami, Fla. on Feb. 12-14. The Minutewomen then went 2-3 at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Ga. on Feb. 26-28. On March 5-7, UMass was a perfect 5-0 at the USF Under Armour Invitational in Clearwater, Fla., before heading to the San Diego Classic II on March 18-21 and finishing 4-3. Since then, the Minutewomen are 19-0-1, including 13 A-10 wins.
Head coach Elaine Sortino is in her 31st season with a career record of 1,092-448-6 (.708). She ranks sixth among active Division I coaches in wins.
UMass is coming off a season in which it set a program record for winning percentage (seasons of 30 games or more), finishing 41-10 for a .804 winning percentage. The Minutewomen went 16-2 in A-10 play, winning their 21st A-10 Championship and advancing to their 19th NCAA Tournament. The team hosted an NCAA Regional at the UMass Softball Complex for the fourth-straight year.
SCOUTING TEMPLE
The Owls come into the weekend 18-27 on the season and 7-9 in Atlantic 10 play. Temple is currently tied with Rhode Island for the sixth and final A-10 Tournament berth. The Owls and Rams will meet on Sunday for a doubleheader in Kingston.
Danielle Fagan leads the Owls in all three triple crown categories as she is batting .319 with nine home runs and 36 runs driven in. Alli Robinson is the top runner scorer with 30, while batting .266 with four home runs and 15 RBIs. Temple bats .233 as a team with 25 home runs in 45 games.
Most of the starting pitching duties have been split between Kristen Marris and Crystal Nyman. Marris is 12-13 in 25 starts with a 2.51 ERA and holds opponents to a .211 average. Nyman is 5-12 in 18 starts with a 4.88 ERA and a .311 opponents batting average.
UMass has dominated the all-time series with Temple, 64-14. The two teams did not meet last season as a Easter Sunday doubleheader in Ambler, Pa. was rained out.
SCOUTING SAINT JOSEPH'S
The Hawks come into the weekend 25-14 overall and 9-5 in A-10 play. They currently sit alone in fourth place in the standings, behind UMass, Fordham, and Charlotte. The Hawks will face Rhode Island on Friday and Saturday before playing UMass on Sunday. They come into the weekend red-hot, winners of seven in a row, including sweeps of George Washington, Temple, and La Salle.
Sophomore Bernadette Moran and senior Brooke Darreff lead the offense. Moran is batting .319 and has scored 21 runs, while Darreff is hitting .313 with a team-leading eight home runs and 28 RBIs. The Hawks bat .249 as a team.
Erin Gallagher has been the ace of the SJU staff all season. The sophomore right-hander is 20-7 with a 1.36 ERA and has 202 strikeouts in 196 innings. Opponents hit just .173 against her.
UMass has controlled the all-time series with the Hawks, 51-5. Last season in Philadelphia, Kyllie Magill's 10th inning RBI single gave UMass a 4-3 win in the opener and Sara Plourde tossed a one-hit shutout in an 8-0 win in the nightcap. The teams met again in the A-10 Championship game, with UMass routing the Hawks, 11-0.
UMASS RALLIES TO TOP BC
Sara Plourde struck out nine batters, breaking the single-season school record and finish the game with 472 on the season, while Meghan Carta hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie and give No. 20 UMass (34-7-1) a 3-1 victory over Boston College (15-31) on Wednesday afternoon at the UMass Softball Complex. The win extended UMass' nation's-best unbeaten streak to 20 games.
Plourde (33-5) came into the game two strikeouts shy of Danielle Henderson's UMass single-season record of 465, set in 1999. The sophomore right-hander wasted no time, striking out the first three batters of the game to reach 466. The nation's leader in punch-outs finished the game with nine, while allowing one run on five hits and two walks. Her 33rd victory of the season places her one behind Brandice Balschmiter's school record of 34 set last season.
After Dani Weir's RBI single up the middle with two outs in the top of the sixth inning erased a 1-0 UMass lead and knotted the game, Carta came to bat in the bottom half of the inning with one out and a runner at first base after Sarah Reeves reached on a fielding error by the second baseman. The junior catcher crushed the 1-1 pitch over the center field fence for her team-leading 11th home run of the season and 34th and 35th RBIs of the year.
Carta finished the day 2-for-2 with the home run, a double, and was hit by a pitch. Michelle Libby also logged a multi-hit game, going 2-for-3 with a run batted in. The pair accounted for all of UMass hits.
HOME COOKIN'
Friday's game will be the 200th at the UMass Softball Complex for the Minutewomen. They have a 182-16-1 record at the the facility which opened in 2000 for a .917 winning percentage.
In the Atlantic 10, UMass dominates, holding an 95-5 (.950) regular season record at home. In the 12 A-10 Tournament games hosted in Amherst, 10 have gone in UMass' win column.
UMass' offense explodes at home, as the Minutewomen boast a .334 batting average coming into the year. UMass players have crossed the plate 1,097 times (5.77/game) and blasted 136 home runs. At the UM Softball Complex, the squad has held their opponents to a .162 batting average.
UMass had a 54-game regular season home winning streak that went from April 9, 2006 to May 3, 2009. In 2010, UMass is a perfect 6-0 at home.
UMASS IN THE NATIONAL POLLS
UMass moved up a spot in this week's USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll to No. 20. The Minutewomen dropped one spot in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll this week to No. 24.
UMass' highest ranking of the season came on Feb. 16 when it ranked No. 18 in the USA Today/NFCA poll fter going 4-1 on the opening weekend of the season in Miami.
The Minutewomen opened the season ranked in both major national preseason polls. UMass ranked No. 20 in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Preseason Poll, while ranking No. 25 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Preseason Poll. UMass was the only team from the northeast ranked to start the season.
UMass finished the 2009 season ranked No. 14 in both polls.
MINUTEWOMEN A "10" IN THE A-10
UMass boasts a 318-38-1 (.892) record all-time in A-10 games and leads the conference this season in team batting average (.309) and pitching ERA (0.83) in A-10 games.
This year's senior class has a 67-2-1 record in regular season A-10 games.
The 2010 Atlantic 10 preseason softball poll was released on Jan. 19 and the UMass softball team has been picked to win its sixth-straight conference championship. The coaches predicted the Minutewomen to finish first, ahead of second-place Charlotte and third-place Fordham.
UMass will host the 2010 Atlantic 10 Championship on May 12-15 at the UMass Softball Complex.
On May 9, 2009, UMass routed Saint Joseph's, 11-0 in five innings, to win the program's 21st Atlantic 10 Championship. Brandice Balschmiter earned her fourth-straight Most Outstanding Player award, tying Danielle Henderson's record. Whitney Mollica, Sarah Reeves, Jessica Serio, and Whitney Williams joined Balschmiter on the All-Tournament team. The conference title is UMass' fifth-straight and 14th in the last 15 years.
ABOVE THE NORM
Carly Normandin, now in her senior season and serving as co-captain, is leading the team and the Atlantic 10 with a .381 batting average (40-105).
Normandin hit her first home run of the season, a grand slam at La Salle on April 1.
Returning to hitting fulltime at the USF Under Armour Invitational (3/5-7), Normandin picked right up where she left off last season, batting .500 (8-16) in her return from a back injury. She had just one at-bat on the season prior to that and had started three games in center field, but was DPed for.
Normandin entered her senior season in 2010 looking to finish her career with a bang. Showing drastic improvement each season, she reached new heights last year by being named Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and NFCA All-American Third Team, while repeating as an All-Region First Team selection. She joined teammate Brandice Balschmiter as the first UMass NFCA All-Americans since Emily Robustelli in 2003. It was the first time UMass had multiple All-Americans since Kim Gutridge and Danielle Henderson in 1998. Normandin was UMass' first outfield All-American since Sally Maher in 1986.
She finished with a .403 batting average, the highest by a UMass player since Gutridge's .404 mark in 1998, and had a 23-game hitting streak. She did it all for the Minutewomen offensively, hitting 17 doubles, five triples, 10 home runs, 37 RBI, 53 runs, 21 stolen bases, and a.727 slugging percentage, all while playing stellar defense in center field. The Gardner, Mass. native led the Atlantic 10 in average, slugging, hits (71), runs, doubles, and total bases (128). She ranked in the top-20 nationally in doubles (13th), triples (17th), and runs (17th).
THE NATION IS WATCHING
The Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA), the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States, named UMass senior centerfielder Carly Normandin to its initial "Watch List" for the 9th Annual USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year Award. The 2009 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and Second Team All-American is one of 50 players on the list that was released on Jan. 27.
Last season, Brandice Balschmiter was named to the preseason watch list.
PLOURDE-ING IT ON
Sophomore Sara Plourde has gotten off a to a red-hot start in her sophomore campaign, posting a 33-5 record with a 1.09 ERA. She began the week leading the country in strikeouts (463), second in strikeouts per seven innings (12.9), second in victories (32) and sixth in shutouts (13). On Wednesday, she struck out the first three batters of the game vs. Boston College to break Danielle Henderson's UMass single-season strikeout record of 465 (1999). She finished the game with 472 on the season. She sits one victory behind Brandice Balschmiter's school record of 34 set last season.
Plourde has thrown five no-hitters this season, one a perfect game. She tossed her first of the year on Feb. 27 in a 1-0 win over Illinois State, striking out 18. Plourde was part of two no-hitters, one a perfect game, in UMass' A-10 opening sweep of George Washington (3/28). She retired every batter in four innings in game one, combining with Bailey Sanders for the 11th perfect game in school history. In game two, she walked the first batter and retired every batter the rest of the way for the no-hitter. Her fourth no-hitter of the season came at home on April 9, striking out 13 and walking one in a 3-0 win over previously A-10 unbeaten Charlotte. The most recent was April 20 when she fanned eight and walked two in a 6-0 win vs. Quinnipiac.
Plourde has been named A-10 Pitcher of the Week five times this season and was named UMass Athlete of the Week three times.
The sophomore struck out a school-record 22 batters in a nine-inning 1-0 loss to No. 22 Texas A&M (3/20). Plourde held the Aggies hitless through 8 2/3 innings, allowing a single with two outs in the ninth that drove in a runner from second with the International Tiebreaker rule in use. It is tied for the most strikeouts in a nine-inning game in NCAA history.
At Boston College on April 6, Plourde struck out 20 out of the 23 batters she faced, setting a UMass record for strikeouts in a seven-inning game, breaking the old mark of 18, accomplished three times by Danielle Henderson and once by Plourde.
The Bristol, Conn. native threw a no-hitter in her second career start, retiring 18 in a row after hitting the first batter of the game and striking out nine at Dayton on March 22, 2009. She was named to the A-10 All-Rookie Team in 2009 after going 6-1 with a 1.83 ERA.
REEVES BRINGS THE POWER
For the third year in a row, Sarah Reeves is helping anchor the middle of the UMass lineup. The senior first baseman, who smacked 10 home runs each of the last two seasons, is second on the team in home runs with seven this season and is second in RBIs with 28. Reeves was named Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team and All-Championship for two years in a row.
Reeves has been an even tougher out as of late, batting .500 (15-30) with three home runs, and a 1.100 slugging percentage over the last 10 games.
Reeves crushed two home runs in UMass' 7-5 win at BU on April 13, giving her 26 in her career, tying her with Brandi Cross and Scooter Wheeler for fifth in UMass history. On April 20, she hit a two-run home run into the wind that traveled completely out of the UMass Softball Complex against Quinnipiac, her third round-tripper in three games and moving her alone into fifth all-time at UMass with 27.
The Elkton, Md. native tied a school record with five hits, going 5-for-5 in game one of a twinbill at GW (3/28) and then hit a grand slam in game two, giving her seven RBIs on the day.
Reeves got her 2010 season off to an incredible start by batting .571 (8-14) with four doubles, a home run, four RBIs, and a 1.071 slugging percentage. She was named the Atlantic 10's first Player of the Week of the season on Feb. 15.
Along with her 10 bombs each of the last two seasons, Reeves has been an incredibly consistent run-producer as well, driving in 38 runs in 2008 and 39 runs in 2009, while slugging over .500 both years. She has started 111 straight games at first base, committing just six errors in over 800 chances.
LIBBY MOVES TO GREENER PASTURES
Senior Michelle Libby, after serving mostly as a DP and reserve third baseman last season, makes the move to the outfield in 2010, where she playing a prominent role. She is tied for second on the club in home runs with seven, while hitting .308 with 24 RBIs. The Porter, Maine native has started all 42 games, 36 in left field, five at third base, and one at DP.
2010 got off to a great start for Libby at the FIU Combat Classic (2/12-14), batting .533 (8-15) with two home runs and six RBI.
Libby enjoyed a breakout year in 2009, finishing fourth on the team in batting average at .314. She had nine doubles, three home runs, and 18 RBI. A fundamental team player, she also was tied for the team lead in sacrifice bunts with seven (Mollica). All of this came after having just one hit in 23 career at-bats the previous two seasons.
CARTA CATCHES ATTENTION
Junior Meghan Carta has started at catcher in every game for UMass this season and, besides providing great defense behind the dish, has provided a huge boost to the offense. After starting just eight games and recording 28 at-bats in her first two seasons, the Middletown, Conn. native is batting .298 on the season and leads the team in home runs with 11 and leads in RBIs with 35. She has also dropped down five sacrifice bunts, second on the club.
Her two-run home run in the sixth inning broke a 1-1 tie and led UMass to a 3-1 win vs. Boston College on Wednesday.
She had the first two-home run game of her career on April 16 at UConn when she hit a grand slam to go along with a two-run shot for a six-RBI day.
Carta had her second two homer day of the season on April 1, blasting a round-tripper in each end of a doubleheader sweep at La Salle.
Carta hit the first two home runs of her career on the same day, Mar. 6, one each in wins over Virginia Tech and USF.
BETTENCOURT BREAKS OUT
Sophomore Katie Bettencourt, after seeing just seven at-bats as a freshman, has quickly established herself as one of UMass' top bats in 2010. She has started every game in right field and is second on the team and the A-10 with a .371 (46-124) batting average. She has 11 doubles, six home runs, and driven in 25 runs.
She has been red-hot as of late, batting .563 (9-16) over the last five games.
Bettencourt was named A-10 Player of the Week on April 12 after batting .500 with two home runs in a 4-0 week and won the award again on May 3 after batting .692 with seven RBIs in another 4-0 week.
Bettencourt set career-highs with three RBIs and four runs scored in UMass' A-10 opening win over GW (3/28).
The highlight of Bettencourt's season this far was on Feb. 12 when she hit the first home run of her career, which ended up being the only run scored in UMass' 1-0 win over NC State in Miami.
The first hit of the Salem, N.H. native's career came on the biggest stage she has played on, singling off National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie in a pinch-hitting appearance against Washington in the 11th inning of the Minutewomen and Huskies' epic 15-inning battle in the 2009 NCAA Amherst Regional Final.
"D" GETS AN "A"
Often over-shadowed this season by Sara Plourde's strikeout totals, has been the stellar play of the UMass defense. The Minutewomen entered the week ranking 16th nationally with a .973 fielding percentage and have committed just 26 errors. The team's 26 errors entering the week was tied for second-fewest in the country.
The Minutewomen have two regular starters with perfect 1.000 fielding percentages, Katie Bettencourt (RF) and Sarah Reeves (1B). Catcher Meghan Carta has made just three errors in 526 chances for a .994 percentage.
After practicing exclusively indoors, the Minutewomen committed seven of their 26 errors this season at the season-opening tournament in Miami (Feb. 12-14).
SORTINO ASCENDS ACTIVE WIN LIST
Elaine Sortino has made her name synonymous with UMass Softball in her 30-plus seasons as head coach. By consistently leading a Northeast school to national prominence, she has garnered the respect of the entire softball community. In 2004, Sortino was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Sortino has a career record of 1,092-448-6 (.708). She currently ranks sixth in active Division I victories, passing South Carolina's Joyce Compton last season.
In 2009, Sortino was named A-10 Coach of the Year for the 10th time, second-most in conference history in any sport. The coach she trails - UMass men's swimming coach Russ Yarworth, also in his 31st season, just won his 11th award on Feb. 20.
In 2009, Sortino and her assistants, Jessica Merchanet and Kristi Stefanoni, were named Speedline/NFCA Northeast Region Coaching Staff of the Year. It was the sixth time Sortino's staff has won the award.
UMass' game against Cornell in the NCAA Regionals on May 15 was Coach Sortino's 1,500th career game.
In 2008, she earned her 1,000th win on April 13 against the Temple Owls and went on to finish that season with 1,017 total wins.
HOME FOR THE A-10 TOURNEY
UMass will host the 2010 Atlantic 10 Championship at the UMass Softball Complex on May 12-15.
The UMass Softball Complex has hosted the A-10 Championship on four occasions - 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2007. The Minutewomen have a 10-2 record in those years, winning the championship three times - 2000, 2003, and 2007. Temple won the title in 2004, eliminating UMass after the home team lost to Saint Joseph's.
UMass hosted the A-10 Championship on three other occasions, at the Totman Field in 1990, 1995, 1996, winning the title outright in `95 and `96, and sharing the title with Temple in `90 when play was suspended.
