WHAT'S ON TAP? | The Hartford Hawks softball team has had a rough time dealing with Mother Nature since the start of the season as all seven of its scheduled home games have been either moved away from West Hartford or canceled due to poor field conditions. Having played every game on the road thus far in 2013, the Hartford Hawks softball team continues its season away from West Hartford this weekend, as it wraps up a seven-game road stretch by taking on UAlbany in America East action. Looking to improve upon a 2-1 mark to start league play, the Hawks are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Friday (2 p.m.) and will wrap up action in Albany on Saturday with a single game (1 p.m.).
SCOUTING UALBANY | Vicky McFarland was named the America East Player of the Week on Monday after helping lead UAlbany to a perfect 4-0 record at the Rebel Spring Games last week. The reigning Rookie of the Year batted .600 on a 9-for-15 effort, belting out three homers, driving in eight runs and scoring eight. One of those hits, a three-run home run to center field, piloted the Great Danes to a 12-inning victory over Rider. She enters the weekend riding a seven game hit-streak, leading her team to seven-straight wins during that span. Overall, McFarland is batting .344 with 22 hits, including three doubles and four homers, and has 16 RBI while pacing the offense in runs with 18. Charlise Castro has also found success in the batter's box, batting .354 (13-for-48). She ties McFarland for the team lead in home runs (4) and tops the Great Danes in RBI (16) and walks (14). UAlbany, which got off to an 0-5 start but has turned around to win 12 of its last 14, does not sport a deep rotation in the bullpen as two pitchers have split the duties inside of the circle. Brittany MacFawn owns a 6-5 record and has recorded a team-best 83 strikeouts on the season. She has tossed 11 complete games in 12 starts and enters the weekend with a 3.62 ERA. Emily Ostrum has made seven starts and brings a 6-2 record and 4.41 ERA into the three-game set.
SERIES HISTORY WITH UALBANY | Prior to this weekend's series, Hartford and UAlbany have hooked up 33 times since the Great Danes became a Division I softball team for the 2012 season. Having swept the last two annual three-game series from the Hawks, the Great Danes have won eight of the last nine contests in the series and hold a commanding 22-11 record (.667 win percentage) against Hartford.
LAST TIME THEY MET | Last season, the Hawks suffered a three-game sweep to UAlbany in West Hartford on April 7 and 8. The Great Danes, who combined to outscore the Hawks by a margin of 30-3 while not conceding an extra base hit, grabbed a pair of wins on Saturday with both games going down as five-inning affairs. UAlbany took game one by a 10-1 final before grabbing the second contest by a 12-0 count. The following day, Hartford hung with the visiting squad, tying the game at 1-1 in the third frame, but the Hawks surrendered a pair of runs in the top of the fifth and allowed five more in the top half of the sixth to fall by an eventual 8-2 final. Jordan Haines paced Hartford at the plate, going 3-for-7 in the series with one run scored while Jackie Kelly recorded Hartford's lone RBI on the weekend.
LAST TIME OUT | The Hawks played four games in the tri-state area in mid-week action, first taking on Rider for a pair of games before battling BIGEAST foe Rutgers for the first time in program history. In the Rider doubleheader, Hartford pounded the Broncs, 10-0, for the shutout win in the opening game before falling in the nightcap, 12-4. Seniro Melani Maxwell combined for five RBI in both games while Kaitlyn Meade allowed five Rider batters on the base paths to earn her second shutout of the year. The following day, Hartford traveled to Rutgers for a pair of games, but fell 5-0 and 7-0 in Piscataway.
NEXT ON TAP | Despite the season starting 39 days ago, the Hartford Hawks softball team has yet to play a home game this spring. Twenty-eight games and three cancellations later, that will finally change for the Hawks as they are slated to play at the University of Hartford Softball Field for the next six games, a stretch that spans four dates. The home stand will finally begin on Wed., Apr. 3 as the Hawks host non-conference opponent Iona for a midweek doubleheader at 2:30 p.m.
ON THE RIGHT FOOT | Hartford got league play off on the right foot last weekend, taking two out of three against Stony Brook. The series win marked the first time since the 2009 campaign that the Hawks kicked off America East Conference play with a series win. That season, Hartford swept three home contests from Vermont, combining to win those games by 18 runs. In addition, clinching the series over Stony Brook was significant in another aspect as the feat has been accomplished by Hartford on just two other occasions. Since Stony Brook joined the America East for the 2002 season, Hartford scored series wins in both 2007 and 2011 after compiling a 2-1 mark against the Seawolves those seasons.
ANOTHER SHUTOUT | Junior Kaitlyn Meade threw her second shutout of the season last week, blanking Rider in a 10-0 win. Her first came against Savannah State at the FIU via a 13-0 triumph. The clean sheet is the fourth of her career and the fourth for the Hawks this season.
SECOND HONOR | Hawks' ace Zuzana Kudernatschova earned recognition from the America East Conference for the second time in her career as she was again named the league's Pitcher of the Week on Monday, March 25. A transfer from Highland Community College, Kudernatschova allowed just one run over a stretch of 18 innings with her efforts in the circle leading Hartford to wins in two out of three against Stony Brook. In her league debut on Saturday, the Statenice, Czech Republic native was lights out, tossing 10.1 hitless innings en route to the Hawks' 1-0, 11-inning triumph. In the rubber match on Sunday, Kudernatschova again went the distance, allowing one earned run while scattering three hits to pick up her second-straight win by way of a 2-1 decision.
CONFERENCE RECOGNITION | Zuzana Kudernatschova, a junior transfer from Highland Community College, was tabbed the America East Pitcher of the Week on Monday, March 11, scoring the first weekly honor for a Hartford softball player this season. The Statenice, Czech Republic native tossed a two-hit shutout to lead the Hawks to a 1-0 victory over Manhattan on Sunday. The hurler held the Jaspers hitless until the bottom of the fifth frame to earn her first win in a Hartford uniform.
SHUT 'EM OUT | Junior Kaitlyn Meade tossed the first shutout this season for the Hawks, and got the plethora of run support she needed to pick up her first victory of 2013 against Savannah State at the FIU Tournament (Feb. 24). Meade worked for five innings for the mercy-rule win, scattering four hits and issuing just one walk during that stretch. Backing that stellar performance inside of the circle was Hartford's bats, which exploded for 13 runs on 13 hits to earn its first win of the year.
SHE'S ON TOP OF IT | After enjoying a pair of standout seasons at Highland Community College which led to back-to-back NJSCAA All-American honors, Zuzana Kudernatschova has picked up right where she left off, making an impression in the America East Conference. She currently sits on top of the league statistics in with a 1.98 ERA, a mark that is No. 89 in the NCAA Division I statistics as of games played through last Sunday. Furthermore, on the national level, Hartford's ace currently ranks 44th in the country in hits allowed, conceding 4.75 hits to her opponents per seven innings.
MY SACRIFICE | One key to the Hawks' success in 2013 has been their ability to capitalize on the small ball strategy. One look down the roster and you will see that the lineup does not consist of several power hitters as the team has seen just 22 of its 137 hits go for extra bases. As a team, the Hawks have combined for 28 sacrifice hits, with newcomer Jenice Aloyo accounting for 12 of those. An outfielder who spent one season at Western Texas College before arriving to Hartford, Aloyo is currently second in the NCAA Division I stats in sacrifice hits per game (0.48-per-game) as of Monday. Furthermore, Aloyo has already cracked Hartford's single season record books where she ranks fourth in the program in sacrifices.
100 BETTER | Senior Melani Maxwell has turned her game up a notch over Hartford's last 14 games. Through her team's first 11 games of the season, Maxwell saw time in 10 of those outings, combining for five runs scored, two hits and four RBI. Since then, Maxwell has improved her batting average by nearly 100 points, going from a clip of .105 to a current percentage of .204. In Hartford's last 14 games, Maxwell has played in 13 outings, and is batting .257 during that stretch. In addition, she has belted out nine hits and six RBI.
PLAYING IT SAFE | Sophomore Jackie Kelly has reached base safely in 10 of her team's last 11 games. The lone game where did she not reach base was in game two of the Stony Brook series. During that stretch, she has gone .231 at the plate since playing against Villanova at the Delaware Invitational (March 15) with six hits and nine walks.
OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION | In its first win of the year against Savannah State (Feb. 24) at the FIU Tournament, Hartford slugged the Lady Tigers for a 13-0 decision. The 13 runs scored were the most for a Hawks' team since 2009, when it belted out a 14-0 shutout of Rhode Island on March 18. Among the seven players who grabbed hits for the Hawks against the Lady Tigers, six collected multiple hits, led by three from senior Erica Phelps.
ONE RUN | Seven of Hartford's games have been decided by a single run this season, four of which went down as wins against Rhode Island (6-5), Norfolk State (3-2) and most recently, a pair against Stony Brook (1-0, 2-1). Last season, the Hawks saw 16 games come down to a single run and came away winners in five of those outings.
ALL-LEAGUERS | Hartford brings back a pair of America East All-Conference players from the 2012 season in Jordan Haines and Peyton Fisher. Haines, the league's first-team designated player last year, established career-best numbers in nearly every batting statistic as a junior, boasting a .329 on-base percentage while finishing with 12 extra base hits, including 10 doubles, while adding 14 runs and 12 RBI. Peyton Fisher, an all-rookie team selection who was named to the second-team as a utility hitter, batted .264 last season, ranking second on the team, and collected 34 hits in 47 starts.
GOING STREAKING | A pair of sophomores and a senior hold the Hawks' longest hitting streaks thus far this season, as Peyton Fisher, Jackie Kelly and Erica Phelps have strung together hits in five consecutive games. Fisher got her hit streak going at FIU and kept it going through the following weekend, collecting five base hits during that span. Kelly started her streak against Savannah State (Feb. 24) at the FIU Tournament and saw it come to an end in the final game of the Winthrop Tournament held the following weekend. During her five-game stretch, Kelly had eight hits, including a three-hit outing against Savannah State. Phelps also hit five consecutive games with a hit. Her streak started with one hit at Central Connecticut (Mar. 13) and ended after being held hitless against St. Francis (PA) at the Delaware Invitational.
COVERING YOUR BASES | Jordan Haines and Kate Wacyk, a pair of seniors, led the Hawks last year in extra base hits. Haines collected 12 extra base hits in 2012, collected a team-best 10 doubles while adding one triple and a homer. Wacyk saw 13 of her 31 hits go for multiple bases and led the team in triples (3) home runs (3) while adding seven two-baggers. This season, five of Haines' 10 hits have gone for extra bases (4 doubles, 1 homer) while classmate Melani Maxwell has also matched a team-best in doubles with four.
WHATS NEW | The Hawks welcome six new faces to the dugout in 2013 highlighted by Zuzana Kudernatschova and Jenice Aloyo, a pair of junior college transfers. A transfer from Highland Community College, Kudernatschova was an NJCAA All-American First Team pitcher who led all of Division II in innings pitched (236.0), runs (30), earned runs (15) and (342) while amassing 28 wins, the most in the nation. Aloyo comes to Hartford after playing one season at Western Texas College, where she batted .448, going 84-for-194 at the plate while recording 87 runs, 23 RBI and drawing 21 walks. Joining the roster as true freshmen are Erin Okoniewski, an infielder, utility player Sawyer Fried and Elizabeth Batsinelas, a pitcher. Brittany Beebe, a sophomore hurler from Harleysville, Pa., rounds out the new faces on the field for the Hawks in 2013.
POLL POSITION | In a preseason poll of the league's head coaches, the Hartford Hawks were picked to finish sixth among the seven members of the America East Conference. UAlbany and Boston University, the two teams that played for the 2012 America East Softball Championship, are the preseason favorites to finish the 2013 regular season atop the conference standings. The Great Danes and Terriers each received three first-place votes (coaches are not allowed to vote for their own team) and 32 points. Stony Brook, which received one first-place tally, followed in third with 29 points, while Binghamton came in fourth (19 points), one point ahead of Maine (18). Hartford (10) was picked sixth while UMBC (7) rounded out the poll.
WHATS ON THE MENU | Hawks head coach Diana Consolmagno announced a 56-game schedule for 2013, a slate that is highlighted by a trio of non-conference tournaments and also includes three NCAA regional participants in Iona, Massachusetts and America East Tournament champion Boston University. The Hawks open up their season in the Sunshine State with the FIU Tournament where they are scheduled for five games. Following that tournament, Hartford remains on the road for the Winthrop Tournament and will then return home for its Nutmeg State debut which features doubleheaders at Quinnipiac followed by its home opener against Central Connecticut. Following the Delaware Tournament on Mar. 15-17, America East conference play begins shortly after with a three-game, weekend series in West Hartford against Stony Brook. The top four teams in the conference standings will qualify for the America East Softball Championships, which will be held at the site of the top-seed on May 9-12.
