Brandice Balschmiter ’09 set the record for the most career wins by a UMass Amherst softball pitcher when she won her 109th game on April 14. Balschmiter surpassed the mark set by Danielle Henderson ’99 and joins Henderson as only the second pitcher in school history to record 1,000 career strikeouts. Her 109th win was just one highlight of a stellar season for Balschmiter and the Minutewomen. At presstime, the team was 27-6 and undefeated in the Atlantic 10.
Balschmiter has been pitching in Amherst since age 12. As a girl, the best week of her summer was always at UMass Amherst softball camp. She raced wheeled desk chairs down the dorm halls when she first came to camp from Newark, New York, and idolized the older players.
This summer, thousands of girls will be looking up to Balschmiter. She’ll play softball for the Chicago Bandits in the country’s only professional softball league, National Pro Fastpitch. Balschmiter was a first-round pick for the Bandits and fifth overall in the draft. She got the league’s attention starting her freshman year when she led the Minutewomen to within a game of the Women’s College World Series. She was the A-10 pitcher of the year each of her three seasons and had a 31-8 record, a 0.66 ERA and 18 shutouts last season.