|
Pair of Black Bears Garner America East Yearly Awards
May 10, 2006 ORONO, Maine - University of Maine softball head coach Stacey Sullivan and redshirt freshman pitcher Jenna Balent (Conifer, Colo.) were named the America East Coach of the Year and Rookie of the Year, respectively, on Wednesday at the annual conference awards banquet. In addition to those honors, four Black Black were named to the league's first team, one to the second-team and two to the all-rookie squad. All voting for post-season awards was done by the league's head coaches. In her first season at Maine, Sullivan has led the Black Bears to a school-record 35 wins and the 2006 America East regular season championship. A 1999 graduate of Maine and a former captain, Sullivan will lead the top-seeded Black Bears into the America East Tournament, starting Thursday at Kessock Field in Orono. She led Maine to a 16-5 conference record which was the most league wins by a Black Bear team, and became the third head coach in program history to post a winning record in their first season. Balent became the first player in the program's history to be named the conference rookie of the year. She leads America East with a 1.25 earned run average and ranks 30th nationally. She pitched her best during the conference schedule as she posted a 0.29 ERA against league opponents. Balent recorded a 14-10 record during the regular season and pitched 19 complete games. She has not allowed an earned run in her last six appearances, and has given up only three in her last 14 appearances which includes nine starts. Balent has also shown great command of her pitches by striking out a combined 24 and walking zero batters in her last three starts. Balent was also named to the All-America East First-Team and the America East All-Rookie Team. The three Black Bears who joined Balent on the first-team included senior pitcher Sarah Bennis (Pownal, Maine), senior shortstop Brittany Cheney (Abington, Mass.) and senior designated player Amy Kuhl (Phoenix, Ariz.) Bennis went 19-6 with a 1.94 ERA during the regular season and tied the school-record for wins in a season by a pitcher. Cheney, who ranks fourth in the league with a .384 batting average, was named to the conference first-team for the third-consecutive season. Kuhl, who was named to the league's second-team in 2005, is batting .293 with one home run and 26 runs batted in. Erin Provost (Peru, N.Y.) was named to the All-America East Second-Team as an outfielder. She is batting .307 on the season, but has done even better in conference play by posting a .324 clip. Provost has homered three times and driven in 16 runs in league play. Second baseman Ashley Waters (Amesbury, Mass.) joined Balent on the All-Rookie Team. It marked the second award from the conference in the last three days for Waters, who was named the America East Rookie of the Week on Monday for her performance in last weekend's series win over UMBC. Waters batted .444 against the Retrievers and drove in the game-winning run in the eighth inning of the first game of Friday's doubleheader sweep. Maine will begin post-season play on Thursday when it takes on No. 4-seed Boston University in the opening round of the America East Tournament at Kessock Field. The game will begin at 2:30 p.m. The winner of this weekend's tournament will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship, which begins next weekend. For ticket information, please call 581-BEAR or toll-free at (800) 756-TEAM.
Each game that Maine takes part in during the weekend can be heard on WZON-AM 620. Fans outside of WZON's coverage area can still listen to the games on the internet at www.zoneradio.com(.)
|
