The University of Maine baseball team plans to add three freshmen pitchers to its starting rotation this season for a total of seven starters.

Right-handers Keith Bilodeau of Bourne, Mass., Pat Quinn of Quaker Hill, Conn., and A.J. Bazdanes of Nashua, N.H., began throwing when the baseball team opened practice Sunday, the first allowable day by the NCAA.

Maine Coach Steve Trimper hopes the three will be effective starters and help the team return to the America East playoffs.

Maine went 20-28-1 last year, just 8-15 in the conference, and missed the postseason in part because of a lack of pitching depth.

"Pitching has always been our Achilles' heel. We have a little more depth than we've ever had," said Trimper. "It took a couple of years to build and with three freshmen we have seven quality guys we're looking to start."

Maine returns four starters: three sophomores in right-hander Matt Jebb, and left-handers Kevin Scanlan and Jonathan Balentina, and junior right-hander Joe Miller.

Baseball opens Feb. 20 in Las Vegas with a four-game series against UNLV.

"We need a good year," said Trimper. "We struggled last year because of depth and not knowing how to play college baseball. We had a lot of talent but lost 10 or 12 close games we should have won."

The softball team, meanwhile, began practicing as soon as players returned from the semester break. The season begins Friday under a new coach, Deb Smith, with a game against Virginia Tech at Chattanooga, Tenn. Smith previously coached the team from 1999 to 2004.

"I would really like to see how we stack up against them," said Smith. "They were in the College World Series last year. But if we can play well and really give them a run, it will be a huge confidence boost for this group."

The softball team also missed the playoffs in 2008 after going just 11-39 and starting with an 0-28 skid.

This year the team opens with a 30-game trip to Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida before heading north at the end of March. Conference play opens March 28.

The softball team lost one player and added five freshmen.

"They had such a rough start last year playing a really competitive schedule," said Smith. "This year they feel so much more confident going in already. They know it's a good schedule but they feel like they have a little more of a chance."

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE

Sophomore guard Kaylie DeMillo was named Little East Conference Player of the Week after sparking the Huskies to victories against Plymouth State (66-51) and UMass-Dartmouth (69-41) last week. DeMillo averaged 18.5 points and 4.5 assists per game, shooting 43.0 percent (7 of 13) from 3-point range and 44.0 percent (13 of 29) from the field.

DeMillo is the Huskies' second-leading scorer with a season average of 13.6 points per game.

• The leading scorer, Stacey Kent (16.5 ppg), returns to action tonight for the Huskies against Thomas after serving a five-game suspension for violating the school's athletic code of conduct.

UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND

Nor'easter fans can get scores via text message with a new service offered by the athletic department.

All 14 of UNE's sports are available. Standard text message rates apply.

To sign up for the service, click on the "Text Alerts" graphic on the upper right-hand side of the University of New England athletics Web site at http://athletics.une.edu, or log on directly to http://athletics.une.edu/member/sms_signup.aspx.

BOWDOIN COLLEGE

Jill Henrikson of Bath was named the Maine Women's Basketball Coaches Association rookie of the week for her performance in a pair of victories over the weekend. Henrikson led Bowdoin (16-4)...