As her University of Maine teammates practiced earlier this week, preparing for the America East softball playoffs, ace pitcher Jenna Merchant stood – more or less – on the sideline, offering encouragement, jokes, and a constant smile.

If Merchant is still smiling on Saturday, it will mean that she found a way to deal with the reason she missed the week’s practice sessions.

Merchant, you see, has a stress fracture in her right foot. It hurts when she pushes off the pitching rubber. It hurts when she drags it through the dirt.

And if she can’t deal with it hurting, she won’t pitch as the Bears make their first conference tourney appearance since 1998.

“Basically, I can’t make it that much worse,” Merchant said. “It’s just a matter of being able to play through the pain. And obviously, I was too big of a wuss last weekend to do it. So we’ll see.”

The America East conference playoffs begin today in Burlington, Vt. The No. 3 Black Bears take on No. 2 Hartford in the opening round of the double-elimination affair. The tournament runs through Saturday.

Boston University is the top seed, while Albany is No. 4.

The “last weekend” Merchant refers to was actually the first game of a four-game series with Binghamton. She pitched six scoreless innings before the foot began to bother her.

In fact, Merchant had pitched 25 straight scoreless innings up to that point, dating back to the game in which she injured the foot on April 17.

Merchant has compiled a 17-10 record with a sparkling 1.44 earned run average and 144 strikeouts in 204? innings.

Candace Jaegge, who has split time with Merchant all year long, is 8-17 with a 2.05 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 160? innings.

Shortstop Erica Sobel said Merchant balked at having to sit down during practice, but constant reminders from teammates seemed to work.

“We’re kind of keeping her on a tight leash,” Sobel said. “She always wants to do a little bit more, which isn’t a bad thing. But team-wise, we want her to just sit down.”

Sobel said making the playoffs has been a goal since she arrived at UMaine. This year, she and her classmates finally qualified for the four-team field.

“The first two years [of my career] we missed the tournament by one game and basically it was in our hands to get into it,” Sobel said. “The same thing happened this year, and we came out … and did it. We were just elated.”

But coach Deb Smith admitted that just qualifying isn’t enough. Now that the Bears have met that goal, she’s looking forward.

“We actually set a goal for the conference championship [at the beginning of the season],” Smith said. “We are definitely shooting for the tournament championship. We’re not just going for the sake of going.”

League names Smith coach of year

Smith, now in her third season as head coach at Maine, was named America East Coach of the Year by the league Wednesday.

Smith has guided the Bears to a 13-11 mark in America East and 26-29 overall.

Maine also placed four players on the all-conference first team: Leigh Ann Hlywak, Jess Brady, Sobel and Merchant. Katie Churchill and Aliesha Rautenberg gained second-honors while Merchant, Brady and Lindsay Tibbetts were named to the all-rookie team.