ORONO – It’s under snow right now, but by the middle of May the University of Maine softball team’s Kessock Field should be in full spring bloom.

And by May 15, the Black Bears are hoping to still be playing on their home turf as the team hosts the America East Conference championship for the first time.

First, however, the Bears are waiting for one important piece of equipment.

“Hopefully by then we’ll have a grandstand,” said junior pitcher Jenna Merchant. “We don’t have a place for the fans to sit.

“I think we’re going to do really well. Having that home-field advantage is going to make a big difference.”

Many of the Bears’ league opponents believe in Maine, too. The Black Bears, who leave on their spring trip Saturday morning, were voted second in the league preseason coaches’ poll released Wednesday.

The Bears head out of Orono early in the morning to Portland. From there they’ll fly to Florida for 10 games in Kissimmee, starting Sunday morning with games against Loyola and LaSalle. Then it’s on to St. Augustine, Fla., for four games and then four more in Tampa.

UMaine will finally open its home schedule April 9 with a doubleheader against Binghamton.

This year’s Black Bear squad features the kind of depth head coach Deb Smith has never had in her four previous seasons. Only two players from last year’s team graduated.

“We have, legitimately, at least one backup for every position,” she said. “We have everybody back with another year of experience. Everything just looks really solid right now. We have so many options at a lot of different positions.”

The Bears were 26-22 last season and were 1-2 in the AE tournament.

Top returning players include center fielder Jess Brady of Jackman, who was a first-team all-conference standout. Her .354 batting average was the best on the team last year, and she stole 23 of 28 bases. Brady’s average dipped at the end of last year, and she’s hoping to reclaim some of that.

“This summer [in a fast-pitch league] I did really well,” Brady said. “I got better, now it’s getting worse again, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Sophomores Molly McKinney, Erin Provost and Dana Grimm, and junior Shannon Sirois of Millinocket, will compete for time in the outfield.

Maine finally has pitching depth, too. Junior Jenna Merchant returns after a stellar second-team all-conference season in which she had a 1.49 ERA (seventh in the conference) and 153 strikeouts.

“My control is better and I changed my curve to more of a curve-drop, so that’s moving better,” she said. “I really perfected my knuckleball so we’re going to be using that a lot more.”

Sophomore Sarah Bennis of Pownal had a 2.75 ERA, 12th in the conference. She was also an all-rookie team member.

Senior Candice Jaegge, who was injured most of last year, is healthy for this spring. Alexis Pullen, a former standout at Maranacook of Readfield, will also pitch, as will McKinney.

Second-team and all-rookie team sophomore Brittany Cheney (.326, 24 RBIs) returns at shortstop. Senior Niki Taylor of Chelsea and sophomore Amy Kuhl, who was also an all-rookie honoree, will split time at first base. Junior Lauren Dulkis (19 RBIs, eight doubles) has third base sewn up, while senior Sara Asadoorian and sophomore walk-on Meagan Ramos will likely platoon at second base.

All of that has raised the defense to a high level.

“The players that play all the time, this year we have people that play behind them so they have someone to push them the whole way through,” Brady said.

Asadoorian was injured for most of the Bears’ fall schedule, so Ramos, a North Berwick native who transferred to Maine from Division III St. Lawrence University in New York, got a lot of playing time.

“I’d always wanted to play Division I softball,” said Ramos, who was named Miss Maine Softball in 2002. “It made sense. St. Lawrence is expensive, and I wanted to be closer to my family. [Maine] seemed like the perfect place.”

Junior Lindsay Tibbetts of Berwick will start at catcher with freshman Beth Foltz and Maggie Soule backing her up.

Boston University, the defending champion, was a unanimous pick for first place with 64 votes. The Bears picked up 48 votes and Albany, which finished second last year, was a close third with 47 points. Conference newcomer University of Maryland Baltimore County (41 points) was tabbed fourth.

The top four teams in the regular-season standings advance to the tournament in Orono.

“We’re all really excited for it but we don’t want to overplay it too much,” Brady said. “We still have to make it there, too.”

2004 UMAINE SOFTBALL SCHEDULE

(February, March games

in Florida unless noted)

February

29 ? vs. Loyola, 10:40 a.m.; vs. LaSalle, 12:30 p.m.

March

1 ? vs. Bethune-Cookman, 10:40 a.m.; vs. East Tennessee State, 12:30 p.m.

3 ? vs. East Tennessee State, 10:40 a.m.; vs. Furman, 2:20 p.m.

4 ? vs. Detroit-Mercy, 2:20 p.m.; vs. Central Florida, 6 p.m.

7 ? vs. Evansville, noon; vs. Central Florida, 5 p.m.

8 ? vs. Robert Morris, 9:30 a.m.; vs. Evansville, noon

9 ? vs. Boston University, 2 p.m.; vs. South Florida, 6 p.m.

10 ? vs. Northern Illinois, 10 a.m.; vs. Temple, 2 p.m.

20 ? vs. Rhode Island, 9:30 a.m.; vs. Hofstra, 1:30 p.m., at Hempstead, N.Y.

21 ? vs. Rhode Island, 9:30 a.m.; vs. Hofstra, 1:30 p.m., at Hemsptead, N.Y.

27 ? at George Washington, noon

April

1 ? at UMass (2), 2:30 p.m.

3 ? at Stony Brook (2), noon

4 ? at Stony Brook, noon

9 ? vs. Binghamton (2), 2 p.m.

10 ? vs. Binghamton, noon

14 ? at Boston Univ. (2), 3 p.m.

17 ? vs. Maryland Baltimore County (2), 11 a.m.

18 ? vs. Maryland Baltimore County, 11 a.m.

24 ? at Albany (2), noon

25 ? at Albany, 11 a.m.

27 ? vs. Colby, 4:30 p.m.

28 ? vs. Boston Univ., 2 p.m.

May

1 ? vs. Vermont (2), noon

2 ? vs. Vermont, noon

8 ? at Hartford (2), 1 p.m.

9 ? at Hartford, noon

13-15 ? America East tourney at Orono