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A .455 Batting Average and 0.35 ERA earn Stetson ace Meredith Owen USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Week honors
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OKLAHOMA CITY — A 2-0 performance in the circle with a 0.35 ERA coupled with a .455 batting average, a home run and three RBI from its ace pitcher helped Stetson take the series win over Atlantic Sun Conference foe Lipscomb this week. For her efforts, Meredith Owen (Jackson, Miss.) is this week’s USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Week. With the pair of wins, Stetson improved to 31-9 on the season, 15-5 in conference play and earned votes in this weeks ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll.
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"I am so amazed, honored and humbled," Owen said. "I owe it all to my amazing team as well as my incredible coaches. We have all worked so hard for this season, and I am just excited to be able to share this honor with them."
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On Friday, Owen tossed a six-hit shutout in which she allowed just one runner to reach third base and retired the final seven batters in a row to garner her seventh shutout of the season. As remarkable of a performance as it was, the senior had one of her greatest outings of her career on Saturday. Â A scoreless game in the through the fourth inning, Owen connected for a two-run home run to give Stetson a 2-0 lead. Lipscomb would fight back to tie the game and send it to extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th with the Hatters trailing 3-2 and down to their last strike, Owen delivered a game-tying single to center field evening the score.
The game went 13-total innings with Owen going the distance in the circle. With international tiebreak rules in effect, Owen pitched out of second-and-third, no-out situations in both the 11th and 12th innings, and then she worked out of a second-and-third, one-out situation in the 13th without allowing a single to run to score. For the game, she held the Bisons to just 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-12 in two-out situations. She threw 157 pitches and allowed just one hit in extra innings, a bunt single.
"It is a tremendous honor to have Meredith selected as the USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Week," Stetson head coach Frank Griffin said. "She gave an unbelievable performance in a key conference series for us last weekend both at the plate and in the circle, and the recognition is well-deserved."
For the week, Owen held the Bisons, one of the top hitting teams in the conference, to a .176 batting average over 20 innings of work. She lowered her ERA to an NCAA-best 0.73, and her 19 wins leads the Atlantic Sun. This is the first USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Week honor for Meredith and the first for a Stetson Hatter.
2014 USA Softball National Collegiate Players of the Week
Week 1 (Feb. 6-9): Kylee Lahners - Washington - Junior - Infielder– Laguna Hills, Calif.
Week 2 (Feb. 10 -16): Aimee Creger - Tulsa - Senior - Pitcher– Yukon, Okla.
Week 3 (Feb. 17-23): Ally Carda – UCLA – Junior – Pitcher – Elk Grove, Calif.
Week 4 (Feb. 24 – March 2): Cheridan Hawkins – Oregon – Sophomore – Anderson, Calif.
Week 5 (March 3-9): Dallas Escobedo - Arizona State - Senior - Pitcher– Glendale, Ariz.
Week 6 (March 10-16): Alex Hugo – Georgia – Sophomore – Infielder – Olathe, Kan.
Week 7 (March 17-23): Jaclyn Traina – Alabama – Senior – Pitcher – Naples, Fla.
Week 8 (March 24 – 30): Ellen Renfroe – Tennessee – Senior – Pitcher – Jackson, Tenn.
Week 9 (March 31 – April 6): Katiyana Mauga – Arizona – Freshman – Outfielder – San Diego, Calif.
Week 10 (April 7 – 13): Michelle Mueller – Wisconsin – Senior – Third Base – LaCrosse, Wis.
Week 11 (April 14 – 20): Meredith Owen – Stetson – Senior – Pitcher – Jackson, Miss.
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