SOFTBALL

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BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo softball team announced its 2003 team awards at UB's annual Athletic Awards Banquet, held at Samuel's Grande Manor on Tuesday, April 29. Sophomore pitcher Stacey Evans (Collinsville, IL/Triad) was named Most Valuable Player, freshman Lauren Picciano (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott) was tabbed as the team's Top Newcomer, junior Breanne Nasti (Baldwin, NY/Baldwin) received the Coach's Award and junior Marce Ross (Innisfil, Ontario/St. Peter's) was named Most Improved Player. In addition, senior Jessica Kensy (Cheektowaga, NY/Maryvale) received the Blue & White Club Student-Athlete Excellence in Community Service Award, and freshman Lisa Wheat (Olympia, WA/Tumwater) received the Unsung Hero Award.

Stacey Evans

Evans broke her own school record for strikeouts in a season with 137 and became UB's career strikeout leader with 238. She finished the season with a 1.68 ERA, 10 wins and two saves, and she pitched five shutouts during the year. She was named MAC East Pitcher of the Week twice, once following her two-hit, 1-0 shutout of No. 25 Baylor at the Hawaii Malihini Tournament in March.

Lauren Picciano

Picciano earned the team's starting shortstop position in her freshman campaign. She started all 39 games and finished the season with a .270 batting average, fourth-highest on the team, and a .947 fielding percentage. She also scored nine runs and had five sacrifices and five stolen bases during the season.

Breanne Nasti

Nasti finished the season with a batting average over .400 for the second year in a row (.402). She had 11 multiple-hit games, a .542 slugging percentage and a .496 on-base percentage while scoring 18 runs and driving in 14. She was named MAC East Player of the Week on March 3 and put together a 10-game hitting streak from April 13 to April 26, hitting .577 during that stretch (15-for-26).

Marce Ross

Ross, a career .221 hitter entering the season, finished the year with a .275 batting average, third-highest on the team. She had nine RBIs, 16 runs scored, a team-high nine sacrifices and eight stolen bases during the season, along with a .333 slugging percentage and a .345 on-base percentage. Ross stole a UB single-game record three bases in a 5-1 win at Niagara on April 23, and she ranks fifth all-time at UB with 16 career stolen bases. She was UB's leader in the infield with a .949 fielding percentage at second base.

Jessica Kensy

Kensy received the Blue & White Club Student-Athlete Excellence in Community Service Award, which honors a senior student-athlete who has demonstrated a commitment to serving the Western New York Community, as well as excelling in the classroom, while devoting himself or herself to the success of his or her team. Kensy, one of Buffalo's three inaugural Division I softball signees back in August of 1999, was a four-year starter who appeared in 143 career games with the Bulls. This year, she drove in the only run in Buffalo's milestone 1-0 win over nationally-ranked Baylor, and she served as the Community Outreach Officer for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

Lisa Wheat

The Unsung Hero Award, as selected by SAAC, recognizes an individual who makes a significant contribution on the court, field or in the pool and is recognized for his or her dedication, unselfishness and contribution to the team. The members of SAAC announced at the banquet that the Unsung Hero Award will be called the Christine Dickerson Unsung Hero Award from this point on, in honor of Christine Dickerson (Williamsville, NY/Nardin Academy), a freshman on UB's crew team this past fall who died tragically in a car accident in Ellicottville on December 11, 2002. Dickerson was a walk-on to the UB crew team who had planned to study to become a biomedical engineer.

Wheat survived a serious car accident in December of 2001, after which she spent four weeks in the hospital and had five operations. She was cleared to play softball on December 23, 2002, three days before the one-year anniversary of her accident, overcoming her doctors' initial prognosis that she could start to walk in a year and a half. She appeared in 15 games for the Bulls in 2003 as a pinch hitter and designated player, and she had two hits in 17 at bats in her first season of collegiate competition.