University of Massachusets Athletics

Emma Mendoker ready for UMass softball season

Emma Mendoker ready for UMass softball season

By Brian Henry on January 30, 2013 11:06 AM
With softball season underway and games beginning in mid-February, the UMass softball team is hard at work getting ready for another exciting schedule filled with tough competition all year long. But gone from the previous season is All-America pitcher Sara Plourde, meaning the pitching circle will see some new arms in 2013.
One of those is transfer Emma Mendoker. The redshirt freshman sat out last year at East Carolina with a torn biceops tendon and returned to Amherst where she prepped at Amherst Regional HS and will be looked upon to play a big role for the Minutewomen this season.
Matt Vautour of the Daily Hampshire Gazette recently sat-in on a pitching session with Mendoker and head coach Elaine Sortino.

      It looks like a tedious process -- adjusting her shoulder, tweaking her elbow and wrist movement a little bit to find the optimum pitching motion. But Mendoker, a former star pitcher at Amherst Regional, is enjoying the process.
      A year ago, she was a freshman at East Carolina in Greenville, N.C., getting ready for her first collegiate season after a standout high school career. But just a few days before the season, she felt a pop in her shoulder that was later diagnosed as a torn biceps tendon. It ended her season.

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