ATLANTA - The Great South Athletic Conference announced the softball Players of the Week for contests played February 29 – March 6 and, after voting by the league sports information directors, Salem's Kierston Garner won her second Player of the Week honor while Wesleyan's Mellissa Webb collected her second straight Pitcher of the Week award.
GSAC Softball Player of the Week – Kierston Garner of Salem
The bat of senior Kierston Garner of Salem College got hot this weekend and never cooled off. It started with the first game versus Frostburg St. when Garner hit a grand slam home run to put the Spirits up big, leading them to a 12-1 victory. From then on Garner put on a hitting clinic going 11-for-15 at the plate and batting .733 in four games. Garner had 15 at bats, including 1 Grand Slam,10 singles, scoring 4 runs and delivering 6 RBI's. Garner's on-base percentage was .733 and her slugging percentage was .933 for the weekend.
GSAC Softball Pitcher of the Week – Mellissa Webb of Wesleyan
Mellissa Webb had another dominant performance in the circle, throwing her second complete game shutout in three games against Penn State - Brandywine. In five innings pitched, she gave up only three hits and one walk while striking out nine. In Wesleyan's game against Webster, she came on in relief in the fourth inning with the Wolves down 9-4. Over the next six innings, she gave up five hits, had no earned runs, and struck out another eight batters to earn the win. For the week, she went 2-0. In 11.0 innings pitched, she gave up seven hits and two unearned runs, walked one batter, struck out 17, and recorded a perfect 0.00 ERA. Webb currently leads the GSAC in innings pitched (48.0), strikeouts (54), and strikeouts per game (7.88).
The GSAC sports information directors nominate Player of the Week candidates and then vote on the top two nominees in each sport as selected by the conference office. Player of the Week voting occurs on Tuesdays and the weekly announcement of the winners is released each Wednesday morning.