{"id":10427,"date":"2014-05-08T16:48:01","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T16:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/softball-gears-up-for-america-east-tournament\/"},"modified":"2014-05-08T16:48:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T16:48:01","slug":"softball-gears-up-for-america-east-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/softball-gears-up-for-america-east-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Softball Gears Up For America East Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Softball Gears Up For America East Tournament<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

ALBANY, N.Y. \u2013<\/strong> The University at Albany softball team earned the second seed in the America East Tournament, traversing a trying regular season with a 29-10 overall record, and a 14-3 record in-conference.\u00a0 Like many teams in the northeast, UAlbany had to withstand an unusually high number of games postponed or outright cancelled due to inclement weather.\u00a0 Of the 50 games originally on UAlbany\u2019s schedule, the Danes only played 39.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lost so many games this year,\u201d said head coach Chris Cannata<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cI think we\u2019ve actually played 10 or 12 fewer than we usually do.\u00a0 But it can be a benefit, in that we may be a little fresher entering the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stony Brook is the top overall seed in the tournament, and as such has been awarded hosting duties for the weekend.\u00a0 Stony Brook accumulated a regular season record of 32-16 and a conference record of 15-2.\u00a0 UAlbany opened regular season play at Stony Brook in late March, winning one of three games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Binghamton is the three-seed, with a conference record of 10-7, and an overall record of 21-23.\u00a0 UAlbany was originally slated to open its home schedule against Binghamton, before inclement weather pushed the series back a few days and eliminated one game in the three game set.\u00a0 UAlbany won both games against Binghamton.<\/span><\/p>\n

UMBC is the fourth and final seed in the tournament, amassing a 31-20 overall record and an 8-9 conference record.\u00a0 UAlbany has played the Retrievers most recently, traveling to Baltimore for the final three games of the regular season.\u00a0 UAlbany swept UMBC in the three-game series.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point in the season, all the teams we will see are good, and really anyone can win,\u201d said Cannata.\u00a0 \u201cEveryone is different than when we played them before, and hopefully we\u2019re a little different too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

UAlbany is slated to open the tournament against Binghamton on Thursday at 3:30 p.m., immediately after Stony Brook plays UMBC in the tournament\u2019s first game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBinghamton is aggressive on the base paths, and puts a lot of pressure on opposing defenses to play sharply,\u201d said Cannata.\u00a0 \u201cBut we\u2019re playing better defensively than we were earlier in the season.\u00a0 We still need to communicate a little better on the field, but we have improved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we need to keep doing what we\u2019ve been doing,\u201d Cannata continued.\u00a0 \u201cWe want to keep our hitters in rhythm, and keep everyone sharp.\u00a0 We want to keep our composure, and focus on us, not the other teams.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Offensively, the Danes have started hitting with more consistency and with more power.\u00a0 Shortstop Maggie Cocks<\/a> led the conference in the regular season with a .415 batting average, and catcher Elizabeth Snow<\/a> led league lead with 14 doubles.\u00a0 The bottom of the UAlbany order has started contributing in a big way as well, getting timely hits and scoring some runs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOffensively I think we\u2019re in a good place throughout the lineup,\u201d said Cannata.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the hitters at the bottom of the order can get on base like they have been so our big hitters at the top and in the middle can have the opportunity to drive them in, that\u2019s a big help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

UAlbany has scored early in many of its games this season, a trend Coach Cannata hopes continues through tournament play.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we can continue to score early.\u00a0 I think we play better when we have a lead, and getting runs on the board gets everyone comfortable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Danes will look, in part, to senior pitcher Brittany MacFawn<\/a>, during the tournament for veteran leadership.\u00a0 But MacFawn isn\u2019t the only one on the roster who has postseason experience.\u00a0 The senior class has made the tournament each year they have played, so there are a lot of athletes on the roster who have been in this spot before, and who know what it takes to succeed at this level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBrittany leads by example more than she does vocally,\u201d said Cannata.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019s a game pitcher, pitching well in big games and in big spots.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not just this year, she\u2019s been doing it since she was a freshman.\u00a0 She gets us out of jams when we need her to.\u00a0 But a lot of the players have been here before, so hopefully that means nothing is new for them at this point.\u00a0 And hopefully they can show the new players what it takes to play successfully come tournament time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

UAlbany led all America East teams in batting average, at .294, and ERA, at 2.51.\u00a0 Additionally, UAlbany leads the conference in on base percentage (.375), doubles (67), batters struck out (234), hits allowed (236), and runs allowed (114).\u00a0 UAlbany is second in the conference in slugging percentage (.447), runs scored (219), and stolen bases.<\/span><\/p>\n

The America East Tournament is played with double-elimination rules.\u00a0 The results of tomorrow\u2019s games will determine the schedule for Friday\u2019s games.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\nThe Albany Student Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Softball Gears Up For America East Tournament ALBANY, N.Y. \u2013 The University at Albany softball team earned the second seed in the America East Tournament, traversing a trying regular season with a 29-10 overall record, and a 14-3 record in-conference.\u00a0 Like many teams in the northeast, UAlbany had to withstand an unusually high number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[1640,1641,1674,3125,2059],"class_list":["post-10427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albany-student-press","tag-america","tag-east","tag-gears","tag-softball","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10427"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}