BRAKETTES OPEN SEASON FRIDAY AGAINST NEWTOWN ROCK RIDING 119-GAME WIN STREAK

May 28, 2012 - The Stratford Brakettes open their 2012 women's major softball season Friday night at Frank DeLuca Hall of Fame Field with a doubleheader against the Newtown Rock, PA, Gold at 7 o'clock. They also will battle Sunday at 1 p.m. in a doubleheader, while the Brakettes, Rock, and Stratford Seahawks play a round-robin on Saturday night, starting at 4 p.m. with the Rock and Seahawks meeting.

This will be the Brakettes’ 66th consecutive season of play and once again Manager John Stratton has assembled a powerful unit that is eager to defend their Women’s Major Softball National Championship. The tournament will be played August 9-12 at DeLuca Field with 12 teams already committed.

Last year’s team captured their second straight WMS championship and the team’s 30th national crown overall. It posted a 63-0 record, marking only the second time in history that they finished with a perfect record. The 1971 team went 57-0. Entering Friday’s doubleheader the Brakettes have won an unprecedented 119 games in a row. The last loss came on June 4, 2010 on opening night as the Rock won the second game of the doubleheader, 7-3, before the Brakettes swept the next 56 games for a 57-1 record.

Stratton was hoping to have his full roster against the Rock, but the success of the LSU and South Florida University softball teams in the NCAA Super Regionals last weekend will leave the team without three players. LSU Pitcher Rachele Fico, who is 72-0 in her Brakettes career, and first-year outfielder Tammy Vermeulen of Patchogue, NY, will be in Oklahoma City for the Division I World Series that begins Thursday. Also playing in that elite eight-team field is USF third baseman Jessica Mouse, who is returning to the Brakettes after missing last year with an injury. Two-time batting champion Carly Normandin also will miss opening weekend because she recently began a new job, but she is set to return on June 7 for her fourth year with the team. Normandin hit .461 with 20 home runs and 68 RBI last year.

“We’re always used to playing short-handed in the beginning of the year,” said Stratton. “But we’ve still got a lot of talent available.” Stratton will have five first-team All-Americans at his disposal as they open the season. First baseman/pitcher Stephanie Call, second baseman Ashley Waters, left fielder Becca Carden, right fielder Denise Denis, and pitcher Brandice Balschmiter are all back.

Balschmiter fashioned a 23-0 record last year with 219 strikeouts in 124 innings. She is 80-7 in her five-year Brakettes career. Fico was 29-0 last year with 325 strikeouts and Call was 9-0. Call annihilated the team’s single-season home run record with 31 last year and she also erased the RBI mark with 91. Both were held by ASA Hall of Famer Pat Dufficy (15 HRS and 90 RBI).

Stratton has added another arm to the roster this year in 5-foot-10 right-hander Stacy Birk of Huntington Beach, CA. Birk currently is an assistant coach at the University of Albany following an outstanding pitching/hitting career at Illinois State before she played two years with the Philadelphia Force of the NPF. She hit the game-winning home run against the Brakettes in a 2-0 win July 2, 2009 in Allentown.

Waters enjoyed a career season with a .411 batting average on 16 doubles, five triples and eight home runs. She also drove in 48 and scored 75. Carden put together a .485 rookie campaign on 83 hits, nine home runs and 41 RBI, while Denis moved into second on the all-time home run list with 53 after she hit .439 with 24 extra base hits and 10 home runs and 52 RBI. Other returning starters are shortstop Mandie Fishback (.420, 45 RBI) and catcher Alisa Heronema (.458). She committed only two errors in 420 chances last year.

The Brakettes set a new home run record with 103 last year, breaking the previous record set in 2003 by 38. Call, Normandin, Kristyn Sandberg (11) and Denis all hit double digits. Sandberg, a recent University of Georgia grad, and UMass pitching ace Sarah Plourde were both drafted by the National Pro Fastpitch League this spring and they will become the 24th and 25th ex-Brakettes to play in the pro league.

Newtown’s Kate Bowen (.412), Stratford’s Sarah Calgreen, player-coach Amber Radomski (.339) of Easton, and Brookfield’s Mariel Schlaefer of Lauralton Hall complete the roster. Schlaefer can’t play until Lauralton Hall’s season ends.

BRAKETTES BRIEFS- The Rock scored six of the nine runs allowed by the Brakettes last year. They also finished runner-up in the 2011 ASA Gold Nationals. Manager Rick Waye’s club is a perennial national tournament contender and all 16 players on his team have been offered college scholarships. . . CPTV will televise at least 8 Brakettes home games this year. Locally, Connecticut’s only all-sports cable channel is found on 139 on your dial. . . Brakettes media director Rob Baird will once again handle the play-by-play as all of the team’s 2012 games will be video webcast by going to www.brakettes.com and clicking on the link. . . Gates to DeLuca Field will be open at 5:30 p.m. Friday night. . . The Coastal Cordsmen will sing the National Anthem, while the VFW Post 9460 honor guard presents the colors. . . Becca Carden will be presented the 2011 batting championship trophy before the game. . .the Brakettes will conduct five clinics this summer, beginning June 28 and continuing through July 13. The clinics are open to girls 8 thru 18 and application forms may be obtained here or by calling the Brakettes office at (203) 378-7262.