Softball Weekly Release #12

May 2, 2006

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Player of the Week

Amy Hyerczyk, Butler - 1B
Sophomore * Palos Park, Ill.
Hyerczyk batted .556 with four doubles in the Bulldogs' three loop contests last week. Hyerczyk, who ranks among the League's leaders with a .344 batting average this season, had hits in five in her nine plate appearances last week, scoring three runs and driving in two teammates.

Pitcher of the Week

Kortney Spidell, Cleveland State - RHP
Senior * Strasburg, Ohio
Spidell went 3-0 last week with a 2.40 ERA and her first save of the season. In Saturday's twin bill at Wright State, she saved the first game with 1.2 hitless innings in relief. She then turned around and pitched the first 10 innings of the night cap to earn the victory. Earlier in the week, she picked up both wins in a doubleheader sweep of Toledo.

Butler Bulldogs
- Sophomore outfielder Jenny Jacobs has re-taken the team lead in RBIs, driving in 23 on the season. She is one RBI ahead of classmate first baseman Amy Hyerczyk.

- Freshman shortstop Katie Bell hit her first career home run in Saturday's 6-3 win over Detroit.

- Butler will take this week off for final exams before returning to action Sunday and Monday at UW-Green Bay.

Cleveland State
- Cleveland State has won 14 of its last 15 overall, including 8-1 in the Horizon League, to move a game-and-a-half ahead of second-place UIC in the conference standings. At 34-10 overall, the Vikings trail just the 1995 (37) and 1997 (36) squads for victories in a season. The 13 League wins match the 1995 and 2004 teams' record output.

- The Vikings' 2.02 ERA overshadows the fact that their offense is putting up record-breaking numbers. CSU is hitting .291 while its 201 runs are just two shy of the school record set in 1995. The Vikings are also closing in on new school marks with 49 doubles, 12 triples and 22 home runs en route to averaging 4.6 runs per game.

Detroit Titans
- The Titans' nine League wins match the most in school history, equaling the mark established by the 1993 squad. The Red and White claimed the regular-season (MCC) title that year with a 9-1 loop ledger.

- On Thursday, the Titans start a five-game Horizon League road swing with a twinbill at Wright State. The team closes out the 2006 regular season at League-leader Cleveland State over the weekend.

UIC Flames
- In a 1-3 week for the Flames, UIC had four players posted a .400 batting average or better. In two games, senior Brittany McIntyre went 4-for-8 with one double and two RBI.

- Freshman Sarah Clynes has been impressive in her rookie season with the Flames. She tossed the first no-hitter by a UIC pitcher since Alison Aguilar blanked Fordham on March 16, 2002, when she tossed a no-no against Detroit on April 8. Clynes is 12-5 on the campaign with team-best marks in ERA (2.77), strikeouts (109) and complete games (7).

Loyola Ramblers
- Sophomore shortstop Kat Krause belted her ninth home run of the season in Loyola's 6-3 victory at UIC on Saturday to tie the single-season school record for round-trippers in a season. Krause needs one more dinger to equal the Loyola career record of 14 home runs. The Ramblers are also one home run shy of the single-season team record of 26 homers set in 2003.

- Junior center fielder Tara Miller needs four more stolen bases and one more run to match the Loyola single-season records of 31 and 38, respectively, in those categories. She currently ranks second on the LU career chart with 55 steals and 91 runs.

UW-Green Bay Phoenix
- After missing a month due to injury, senior center fielder Rebekah Oestreich returned to the starting lineup for the second game of Saturday's doubleheader against Youngstown State. She went 2-for-4 with a triple and a run scored in the contest and has now hit safely in all 10 of her starts this season.

- UW-Green Bay has had a flair for the dramatic in its Horizon League games this season. Of the team's 16 League contests, six have been decided in walk-off fashion. Four of the Phoenix's first six losses in League play were of the walk-off variety, but the team has since won a pair of home games on a base hit in the game's final at-bat.

Wright State Raiders
- After defeating Youngstown State in the series finale to pick up their first win of the season on April 2, the last four series finales have not been as kind to the Raiders as they have been outscored 29-3 in dropping all four, including a 10-0 setback in the finale with Cleveland State Sunday.

- For the third time in the last four years, Wright State and Cleveland State went extra innings during their weekend series, with the visiting team winning each time. In 2003, WSU won 11-10 in 18 innings at CSU and, in 2004, the Vikings won 2-1 in 14 innings at WSU. This year's version saw the two teams tied 3-3 after seven innings and 5-5 after 10 before Cleveland State won it in the 11th.

Youngstown State Penguins
- Freshman catcher Kristen McDonnell batted .333 with a double, two home runs and seven runs batted in last week. With two home runs, McDonnell increased her total to nine, which is the second-highest single-season total in school history. She needs one more to tie the record and two to break the single-season mark (Liz Holt, 10 in 2003).

- Youngstown State wraps up the 2006 campaign with a doubleheader at Akron on Wednesday and a three-game set with Loyola over the weekend.