The University of Maine softball team, 14-23 following a doubleheader sweep at Boston University Thursday, has a 5-game slate in Providence, R.I., at the Brown University Invitational, on the weekend menu.

Teams in the tournament with Brown and Maine will be Providence, St. John’s, Hartford and Harvard.

Upon their return, the Black Bears will be home for the remainder of the season.

Maine will host St. Joseph’s at 9:30 a.m. and Eastern Connecticut at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 27.

Maine will host Vermont on Sunday, April 28, at noon and 2 p.m., and close out the season Wednesday, May 5, at 2 p.m. with the University of Southern Maine.

Before departing on its final road trip, Coach Janet Anderson was hopeful Maine could put together a string of wins to inch closer to the .500 mark.

Unfortunately, in games of late the hits have not been there to get those wins.

“The defense has been wonderful,” she said.

“It’s been very strong in keeping us in the innings, and the pitching has been very good, but we’ve been struggling with the bats, which is indicative of our record.”

Maine worked on hitting before heading down the interstate, and Anderson said her team “had three or four great practices in terms of beginning to get the confidence back.”

Increased determination to do well at the plate had produced “major changes in attitude as far as hitting is concerned,” she said. “Now, if we can just take that confidence into the game, we should see some good results.”

Among the Brown Invitational teams, Anderson was concerned about the host squad, which led the Ivy League through April 16 at 2-0 and was 14-6 overall with two players hitting over .400. Pitcher Christine Trexter was 7-2 with a 1.24 earned run average. Harvard was 8-11-1 and Providence 12-15-1, and both teams’ top hitters were in the .400 and .300 range.

Maine freshman pitcher Deb Smith was the offensive leader, with a .312 average through Wednesday. Senior Mel Harris was .266 with 12 runs batted in and Kim Reed .250 with four doubles, a triple, a home run and nine runs batted in.

Smith is Maine’s top pitcher and was 8-12 with one save. Sophomore Mary Campbell is 5-11 both have earned-run averages just over 2 runs per game.

“Both have done well, each throwing six- or seven-hitters,” Anderson said, “but then losing by a run or two. The defense is in there for them. They’ve been in the games. But we just didn’t have the bats.”

Anderson believes her team will come up with some wins this weekend.

“We’ve had the one-run losses enough and worked very hard in practice,” she said, “so we should be able to go out and take some.” –

As a point of interest, Anderson is eagerly awaiting next season when Maine becomes a member of the North Atlantic Conference. By this time next year, Maine will have played at home. Anderson believes 1992 “is going to be a great turn-around year” for the program.