Junior center fielder Rachel Carlson was named to the All-America East first team and was one of five University of Maine softball players honored at the league’s postseason banquet at Binghamton University in New York on Wednesday night.
Senior pitcher Erin Bogdanovich, sophomore right fielder Meghan Royle and sophomore third baseman Alyssa Derrick were second-team selections and left fielder Erika Leonard earned a spot on the All-Academic team.
Florida native Carlson, a slap hitter who usually leads off, takes a .355 average into the America East tournament that began Wednesday in Binghamton. UMaine plays on Thursday. She is the conference’s sixth-leading hitter.
Carlson also leads the Black Bears in hits (44), stolen bases (12) and on-base percentage (.421) and is tied for triples (3). She hit .382 in America East games with a .443 on-base percentage.
She has 12 multiple-hit games and reached base safely in 18 straight games.
“She has been great,” UMaine coach Mike Coutts said. “She works real hard and has solidified the top of our batting order. Her 12 steals have been huge and she has helped Chloe Douglass and Sarah Coyne become better slappers.”
Derrick, of Coventry, Rhode Island, and the 2016 America East Rookie of the Year, slugged a league-leading 13 home runs and was fourth with a .612 slugging percentage. She hit .267 with a team-high 31 runs batted in. In conference games, she hit .373 with six homers and 17 RBIs.
“She has had a great year and has had great production,” Coutts, who also considers her an exceptional third baseman, said.
South Portland’s Bogdanovich, the AE Pitcher of the Year and a first-team selection a year ago, is 5-10 with a 4.44 earned run average and 71 strikeouts and 27 walks in 97⅔ innings.
“Erin’s numbers aren’t great, but she is as good as anybody in the conference,” Coutts said. “She is a great competitor. If we had played better defense, she would have had a few more wins.”
Royle, with Derrick an All-Rookie team pick a year ago, hit .286 with six doubles, three triples, three homers and 16 RBIs. The Colts Neck, New Jersey, product batted .326 in league play.
“She did a lot of different things for us,” Coutts said. “She played second when Sarah (Coyne) was out with a concussion. She has been a (designated player) and she’s now in right field.”
Leonard, a native of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, is a nursing student who tied for the highest grade point average in America East softball at 3.83. She is a second-time All-Academic selection.
She hit .239 and led the team in runs scored (24) and doubles (7). She had 21 RBIs.
“Sometimes she can’t come to practice because she has a clinical so she has to do stuff on her own. To be a Division I athlete with a 3.83 GPA in nursing is phenomenal,” Coutts said.