April 11, 2011
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The BIG EAST Conference honored a pair of Notre Dame softball players Monday as the Irish made it a clean sweep of the league’s weekly awards. Senior Heather Johnson was named Player of the Week for the second time in as many weeks as freshman Laura Winter copped Pitcher of the Week accolades for the first time in her career.
Johnson, a third baseman from Los Alamitos, Calif., improved her current hitting streak to 15 games after four multi-hit efforts in five contests this past week. The 2010 all-BIG EAST selection went 10-for-19 (.526) with eight RBI and two homers for a .895 slugging pct. Both home runs came during Notre Dame’s league doubleheader at Syracuse. She did not strike out in 19 at-bats, and has been fanned only seven times in 106 at-bats this season.
Just as impressive this past week was Winter, a right-handed hurler from San Diego, Calif. Winter earned three wins and one save in four appearances on the week. The 6-foot-1 hurler gave up 13 hits in 18.0 innings with 24 strikeouts. Eleven of those strikeouts came during 10.0 innings of work in two appearances at Syracuse. After picking up a game-one win over the Orange, she also blanked Syracuse in 3.0 innings of scoreless relief to earn her team-best third save in the latter contest of the road doubleheader. Winter permitted three earned runs on the week for a 1.17 ERA.
The Irish (26-7) won five games this past week to bump their current winning streak to nine games, matching the team’s longest jaunt of the season. With a perfect 5-0 league mark, Notre Dame has now won each of its last 11 BIG EAST regular season contests dating back to 2010. The Irish batted .338 as a team this past week with a .633 slugging pct.
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