The last thing Alexis Souhlaris was thinking about after an entirely forgettable (at least for her) sophomore season was becoming the University of Maine’s all-time career leader in steals and hits.
“No, not at all, especially after that. I had a really brutal season my sophomore year,” said Souhlaris. “I knew I had the season record for hits last year, so I kind of looked up how close I was to [the records].”
The senior leadoff hitter from Derry, N.H., was just 27 hits away from tying the record of 205 set by Jess Brady in 2005. Twenty-six games into the season, Souhlaris is Maine’s new career hits leader with 210, but that was news to her until Monday afternoon.
“My dad called me today and saw there was an article about me online. I had no idea,” she said. “I knew I was doing well, but I didn’t know I’d done it already. I thought I had a few more hits to go.”
She already has the career steals record with 78, not that she’s about to rest on her career accomplishments. The 2009 America East Player of the Year has a few more goals and records in mind.
“I’m pretty close to the runs record, so hopefully that’ll happen soon, and I think I need eight home runs for that record,” she said.
Souhlaris is just three runs and eight homers away from being Maine’s career leader in four of the top five offensive categories.
That’s not surprising, considering her “sophomore slump” season (.291 average, eight HR, 17 RBIs, 29 runs and 12 steals) was still good enough to make her an All-America East second-team selection.
Still, it didn’t satisfy Souhlaris, who was named to the AE All-Rookie Team and All-AE first team as a freshman, so she came back with a career season and is well on her way to another one this year.
“Before the year, I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish this year and improve on from last year,” she said.
A drastic position switch from center field to second base hasn’t affected Souhlaris’ offense. The kinesiology and physical education major is batting .413 with two home runs, 11 RBIs, 20 runs scored and 11 steals in 11 attempts.
“It’s a new challenge and it keeps me on my toes. I work on it every day,” said Souhlaris, who has two errors this season after making just three last year. “Balls hit in the infield are a harder read for me. It’s quite an adjustment.”
Obviously hard on herself, Souhlaris isn’t bashful about handing out constructive criticism to her teammates, especially as a senior leader.
“I’m not satisfied because I want to have a winning record,” Souhlaris said of her team’s 9-17 spring trip. “We came out hitting the ball from the start, but we were letting up even more runs. Our pitching and our defense was weak.
“We had some big wins for sure, but we also gave some games away.”
Despite the Black Bears’ 9-18 record, Souhlaris is optimistic they can exceed expectations.
“The Stetson game was an absolutely huge game for us. We played them the day before and they threw a perfect game and mercy ruled us 8-0,” Souhlaris said. “The next day, we said, ‘Uh-uh, we’re not doing that again.’ Ashley Kelley pitched and they had a hard time touching her. Beth Spoehr came on in relief and shut them down and we won 3-2.”
Souhlaris thinks that game will be looked upon as a turning point.
“I think we’re more confident now,” she said. “We feel pretty good for the most part even though we still have some consistency to iron out.”
Maine was picked fifth out of nine in the AE preseason poll, but Souhlaris begs to differ.
“I think we’re going to finish better than fifth place for sure,” she said. “I put ourselves fourth before the season started, but now I think we could be better than that.”
UMaine women 4th in track poll
The UMaine women’s track and field team has been picked to finish fourth in the America East preseason coaches poll released Tuesday.
The Black Bear men were predicted to finish sixth.
Albany is the choice to win the women’s title, followed by Boston University and New Hampshire.
On the men’s side, Albany was the unanimous pick to win its sixth straight crown, followed by UNH, Binghamton, Maryland Baltimore County and Boston University.
The UMaine women feature several standouts, including sprinter Vicki Tolton, the two-time defending champion in the 400 meters, along with Jesse Labreck of Oakland (triple jump, long jump, high jump, hurdles) and 2008 Most Outstanding Track Performer Allyson Howatt (100, 200, 400).
Other standouts include freshman Cearha Miller in the sprints and sophomore Corey Conner in the 1,500.
The UMaine men are paced by All-America miler and distance specialist Riley master of Bangor, last year’s Most Outstanding Rookie.
The Bears also are led by Matt Holman of Gardiner (hurdles), Skip Edwards of Portland (400), senior Miles Bartlett of Casco (steeplechase) and freshman Jamie Ruginski of Buxton (jumps).