Great Danes Earn Softball Three-Peat - America East Champions

BOSTON -- Fourth-seeded Albany becomes only the second team in America East history to win three-straight titles as the Great Danes captured a 6-4 win over No. 2 UMBC in the title game of the 2007 America East Softball Championship at Boston University Field in Boston, Mass. The Great Danes capture the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will learn their opponent on Sunday evening's selection show live on ESPNews between 3 and 4 p.m.

Albany becomes the lowest seed ever to win a conference title, pulling off three-straight upsets to earn the three-peat. The Great Danes join Hofstra as the only teams in conference history to win three-straight titles. The Pride accomplished this fete from 1998-2000.

In the title game, UMBC jumped out to an early 2-0 lead as Amanda Fefel cracked a two-run homer to left field. The Great Danes answered in the home-half of the first as Meagan Butsch smoked a three-run shot to give Albany a 3-2 lead. The Retrievers rallied scoring a pair in the top of the fifth. Once again, the Danes had an answer scoring two in the bottom of the fifth, including Meagan Butsch's single that drove in the go-ahead run. They would add an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth.

In the day's first game, UMBC's Krissy Licursi cracked a three-run walk-off home run to erase a 2-0 deficit and lift the Retrievers to a 3-2 win over No. 3 Hartford and advanced UMBC to the title game against No. 4 Albany.

Albany's Casey Halloran tossed a pair of complete-game wins including a win in the title game to earn her second-straight America East Championship Most Outstanding Player. Below is a list of the entire all-championship team.

All Championship Team:
Amber Maisonet - Albany
Meagan Butsch - Albany
Leah McIntosh - Albany
Kelly Ogden - Albany
Christy Leath - Boston University
Brandi Shields - Boston University
Brittney Stratton - Hartford
Nikki Thompson - Hartford
Kali Shirk - UMBC
Krissy Licursi - UMBC
Amanda Fefel - UMBC

Most Outstanding Player:
Casey Halloran - Albany