March 27, 2007
PROVIDENCE, R.I.- Sophomore Brittney Bargar (Corona, Calif./Corona) for the second time in her career and the first time this season, was named the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week by the conference office on March 27. The Irish pitcher earns the award after she went 3-0 with three complete games, a shutout and 20 strikeouts in 20 innings from the circle in wins over IUPUI (6-1), St. John’s (8-0) and Seton Hall (2-1).
Bargar was not the only Irish player to earn BIG EAST honors as teammate Heather Johnson (Los Alamitos, Calif./Mater Dei) was named to the league’s Honor Roll after hitting .538 (7-for-13) with five doubles and six RBI in Notre Dame’s five wins.
In the win over the Jaguars (March 22), Bargar went the distance with only one run allowed and four strikeouts. She followed it up with her best performance of the season, as she had a complete game shutout of conference rival St. John’s (March 24) with only two hits allowed and eight strikeouts. Bargar complete her week with a seven inning one-hit effort against Seton Hall (March 25) with a lone unearned allowed and nine strikeouts. For the week, the sophomore had a 0.35 ERA and only allowed seven hits, while limiting her opponents to batting average of .106. In conference play this week, she went 2-0 with 17 strikeouts, three hits allowed and one run (unearned) in 13 innings.
A now two-time BIG EAST Honor Roll member, Johnson produced several noteworthy and historic performance in the five wins. The freshman started her week going 3-for-3 with a run scored and two RBI against IUPUI. Two of Johnson’s hits were doubles, as she reached the three-hit milestone for the second time in her young career. The doubleheader against St. John’s saw Johnson walk twice and score a run. The Los Alamitos native really did her damage to the history book in the second game against Seton Hall. Johnson had her second three-hit performance of the week with a run scored and four driven in. All three of Johnson’s hits against Seton Hall were doubles, tying the Notre Dame record for doubles in game (set by Sara Hayes in 1992).
Kate Sheaks of DePaul was named the league’s Player of the Week for the second time this season. Other Honor Roll honorees include Becca Heteniak (DePaul), Heather Kim (Syracuse) JoJo Medina (South Florida) and Kristen Wadwell (Louisville).
Notre Dame returns to the field this week hosting five more home games starting with Toledo at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28. The Irish also will play a pair of conference doubleheaders over the weekend against Pittsburgh (March 31) and Syracuse (April 1). Both weekend sets are to begin at noon.