May 8, 2012
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Rychcik Leads Seven Terriers to America East Honors
BOSTON - Seeking its third America East Championship in four years, the top-seeded Boston University softball team faces fourth-seeded Maine on Thursday, May 10, in the opening game of the 2012 America East softball tournament. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. at the BU Softball Field.
The tournament will take place from Thursday, May 10, to Saturday, May 12, at the BU Softball Field and will be played in double elimination format with the champion receiving the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. BU claimed the top seed and home field advantage in the tournament by capturing its third straight, and ninth overall, regular season conference championship with a 37-14 overall record and 15-3 mark in conference play. The Terriers are 15-9 when playing as the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
Stony Brook enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed with a 35-15-1 overall mark and 14-3-1 record in the America East. Albany, the reigning league champion, captured the No. 3 seed with a 34-12 mark and 13-5 record in the AE. Maine rounds at the field as the No. 4 seed after going 17-28-1 during the season and 8-9-1 against conference foes.
This marks the 13th straight America East tournament appearance for the Terriers, as they own a 43-26 overall record in tournament play. BU has advanced to the title game in 15 of the last 20 years and has captured the crown eight times (1992, '93, '96, `97, '02, '03, '09, and '10).
BU ended the regular season ranked No. 18 in the Mid-Major College Softball Poll and was amongst the best in the nation in several statistical categories. The Terriers pitching staff posted an ERA of 1.85 to rank 19th in the nation while BU also ranks 19th with a team fielding percentage of .973.
Individually, sophomore Holli Floetker (1.39 ERA) and junior Whitney Tuthill (1.78 ERA) ranked 22nd and 59th, respectively, in all of Division I. Floetker led the team with a 17-3 record in the circle while Tuthill went 13-5. Junior Erin Schuppert posted a 7-6 record on the season with an ERA of 3.69.
Sophomore Jayme Mask leads the team with a .352 batting average and is tied for second with classmates Brittany Clendenny and Chelsea O'Connor with 51 hits on the year. Fellow sophomore Megan Volpano leads BU with 52 hits and 35 RBIs.
BU swept the regular season series with Maine, defeating the Black Bears in a doubleheader on April 7 by scores of 2-1 (12 innings) and 6-1. The third game of the series got rescheduled for May 1 due to inclement weather, but BU completed the sweep with a 5-3 victory.
Freshman EmJ Fogel has been Maine's offensive leader with a team leading .333 batting average and 45 hits on the year. Sophomore Dagmar Ralphs and junior Hilary Kane lead the team with 16 RBIs while posting 39 and 31 hits, respectively.
Senior Ashley Kelly had the best season in the circle for the Black Bears with an 8-11 record and 2.77 ERA. Junior Beth Spoehr went 5-9 for Maine with a 4.48 ERA while sophomore Kylie Sparks posted a record of 4-8 with a 5.48 ERA.
The winner of BU vs. Maine will play the winner of No. 2 Stony Brook vs. No. 3 Albany on Friday, May 11, at 11 a.m. The losers of Thursday's games will meet at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.
