SPARTANBURG, SC – UNC Greensboro junior Amber Harrell has been named the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Week for games played April 27-May 3, the league office announced Monday. The award is voted on by the league's softball sports information directors.
Chattanooga first baseman Michelle Fuzzard was named the SoCon Player of the Week after hitting .667 (6-for-9) with six RBI in three games.
Harrell went 3-0 with a 1.14 ERA over the last week, making three starts and two relief appearances as UNCG went 5-2 on the week.
The McDonough, GA, native struck out what was then a season-high nine batters in a four-hit, 3-1 win over Liberty on Wednesday to surpass 400 career strikeouts. Harrell took a shutout into the sixth inning of that game before allowing an unearned run.
She followed that up by taking a 5-3 win over Virginia Tech on Thursday, allowing just two earned runs and striking out eight. In game two of that doubleheader, she pitched 1.1 innings of one-hit relief.
Harrell was simply dominant at Elon over the weekend, striking out a career-high 12 batters and allowing just two earned runs in a 4-3 win on Saturday to move into third in UNCG history in career strikeouts with 425. She passed Winn Hazlegrove, who fanned 416 from 1992-95.
Harrell capped her outstanding week with 2.1 innings of one-hit relief against the Phoenix on Sunday, striking out four. In 9.1 innings against Elon, Harrell struck out 16 batters and issued just one walk.
For the week, Harrell walked just nine batters and had 33 strikeouts, 13 of which came looking. In the five games she finished, she struck out the final batter in three of them. She allowed just three extra-base hits in 24.2 innings pitched.
The award is the second of the season for Harrell, who was also named the SoCon Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 16. Harrell becomes UNCG's first two-time winner since Danielle Byrne earned the award twice in 2004.
Brittany Ausley was named the SoCon Player of the Week on April 13, giving UNCG three weekly award winners this season. The last time the Spartans had that many was also in 2004, when Joni Gomez took three Player of the Week awards in addition to Bryne's two Pitcher of the Week awards.
The Spartans finished the regular season with a 24-31 overall record and a 9-12 mark in the SoCon to earn the sixth seed in the upcoming league tournament. UNCG will face No. 3 seed Appalachian State on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the first game of the double-elimination tournament. The tournament will be held in Chattanooga, TN.
- UNCG -