Freshmen players on the University of Maine women’s softball team had a strong start to the week.
The Black Bears survived day one of the double-elimination America East Conference tournament, dropping game one against UAlbany 7-0 but beating UMass Lowell 3-0 in game two on Wednesday.
Madison Simmerman, a freshman pitcher for UMaine, got the win against UMass Lowell and gave up only three hits in the complete game effort. She moved to 6-12 overall for the young UMaine team this season.
Fellow freshmen Francesca Guerrera and Bailey Snowberger also brought home some individual recognition while helping their team continue their season for at least another day. The two middle infielders were named the the America East All-Rookie Team on Tuesday for their contributions during the regular season, and continued to make a difference for the Black Bears on Wednesday.
Snowberger, who had 35 hits with a .273 batting average at shortstop for UMaine, walked three times against UMass Lowell and scored one of UMaine’s runs in the win. Second baseman Guerrera had 36 hits and a .257 batting average during the regular season and had a double in Wednesday’s win. Both started all 46 regular season games for the Black Bears.
The UMaine team entered the conference tournament at the bottom of the regular season standings, but have been looking to gain momentum and surprise people in the tournament after some late season wins.
“We have a saying where tournament is a new season, so you never really know what’s going to happen,” senior first baseman and catcher Nora Campo said last week. “And we’ve had a history in the past of kind of showing up in tournament and surprising people.”
The Black Bears are scheduled to play again at 4 p.m. Thursday against Bryant University. Both teams have one loss in the double elimination tournament, which is being held at Binghamton University in New York. Bryant won two of a three game series against UMaine over this past weekend.
