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Bay City, Mich. -- Saginaw Valley State University senior outfielder Marsha Beaubien (Alpena, Mich.) and sophomore pitcher Jade Fulton (Byron, Mich.) have been named GLIAC Softball "Player" and "Pitcher" of the Week, respectively it was announced by the league office.

GLIAC Softball "Player of the Week":
Marsha Beaubien - Saginaw Valley State
(Sr, OF, L/R, Alpena, Mich.)

Weekly Honor Roll: Shannon Gray - AU, Amanda Harrington - FS, Katie Ammons - UF, Breanne Kronberg - GV, Devon Trimmer - HC, Rachel Hall - LS, Tiffany Melgoza - NU, Rebecca Stanley - WS.

2009 "Players of the Week": (3/18) M. Beaubien - SV; (3/23) S. Gray - AU; (3/30) L. Hursey - AU; (4/6) J. Banton - WS; (4/13) M. Beaubien - SV.

GLIAC Softball "Pitcher of the Week":
Jade Fulton - Saginaw Valley State
(So, RHP, Byron, Mich.)

Weekly Honor Roll: Emlyn Knerem - AU, Holly Bruntjens - FS, Brittany Dauterman - UF, Lori Andjelich - GV, Jamie Vandenburgh - HC, Megan Eddy - NU, Nicole Abel - WS.

2009 "Pitchers of the Week": (3/18) L. Andjelich - GV; (3/23) C. Hanes - WS; (3/30) E. Knerem - AU; (4/6) C. Hanes - WS; (4/13) J. Fulton - SV. 

-- GLIAC Softball Weekly Notes --

Ashland - The Eagles were ranked third in last week's regional rankings. That marks the second consecutive week AU has been third in the region. This past week started AU's most difficult stretch of the regular season. AU played two regionally ranked teams - Wayne State and Saginaw Valley State - on the road. This coming week, the Eagles visit Hillsdale, then come home to play two more regionally ranked teams, Ferris State and Grand Valley State...by sweeping Wayne State last week, AU evened the season series with the Warriors, 2-2...freshman pitcher Emlyn Knerem pitched a two-hit shutout to beat WSU, 1-0...freshman shortstop Bri Woody singled in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning at Saginaw Valley State in a 6-5 win. For the week, Woody hit .400...senior first baseman Shannon Gray rapped her sixth homer of the season last week, a grand slam at Saginaw Valley State. Gray and pitcher-first baseman Logan Hursey, share the team lead in homers (6) and RBI (19)...Ashland has five players with 15 or more RBI and three players with four or more home runs...AU will honor the three seniors on this year's team when AU hosts Ferris State this Sunday. That's the final home game of the regular season. Gray, catcher Erin Porter and outfielder Nicole Lenart make the up the senior contingent on this year's team.

Ferris State - Senior pitcher Holly Bruntjens moved into third place on Ferris State's all-time wins leader list after claiming both decisions in the Bulldogs' doubleheader sweep of Hillsdale last Saturday (4/11). Bruntjens currently has compiled a 39-18 career pitching mark at Ferris State starting with the 2007 campaign and recently surpassed Teresa Sutermeister's (1998-01) 38-career wins total. Bruntjens needs nine more victories in the circle to tie Niki Moeggenborg's (1994-97) second-best 48 wins on the charts...Sophomore catcher Rachel Mueller's (Santa Clarita, Calif./Valencia) six RBIs this season in 15 contests represents a career single-season high, eclipsing her five RBIs in 12 outings a season ago. Mueller is also batting for a .300 average (9-30) this spring to date in 30 official plate appearances after hitting .217 (5-23) in 23 at bats last season...Sophomore outfielder Rachel Wade (Canton) has produced a career season-best 28 base hits in 30 games this campaign, which surpasses her 21 hits in 42 contests last season. Wade, who has hit safely in 18 outings this spring, is batting .295 this year after turning in a .226 hitting average a season ago.

Findlay - The Oilers went 1-5 last week to fall to 15-16 on the season with a 2-14 record in GLIAC play...Kara Hochevar is leading the team with a .368 batting average...She also has a team-high 29 RBI's...Brittany Dauterman has pounded five homeruns which is the third best mark ever at Findlay for a single season...She also has a team-high 46 strikeouts on the mound.

Grand Valley State - The Lakers got back on track by posting wins in five of six contests. GVSU swept Lake Superior State and Findlay while splitting with Hillsdale. All six games were in Allendale, as the Lakers are now 15-1 at home...with the 10-3 win over Hillsdale on Friday afternoon, GVSU head coach Doug Woods recorded his 700th career victory. Woods now stands at 702-310-3 in his prestigious 19-year career with the Lakers. Grand Valley State has now won 30 games in a season for the 14th time in 19 years with Woods at the helm...a balanced week for GVSU produced a .324 batting average with a 1.80 team ERA. Grand Valley State outscored its opponents, 35-14, in the six games...Nicole Woityra hit .556 for the week, scoring seven runs, and adding three doubles and a triple...junior catcher/designated player Breanne Kronberg paced the GVSU offense with a .435 average, 10 hits (five doubles), and eight runs batted in. Senior pitcher Lori Andjelich went 3-0 on the week with a 1.17 ERA and allowed four runs in 24.0 innings. She is now 17-4 on the year with a 1.11 earned run average and has tossed 18 complete games. She has recorded 123 strikeouts in 139.0 innings, walking just 34 batters...after a home doubleheader against Ferris State on Tuesday, the Lakers head out for three road twinbills - at Saginaw Valley State, Ashland, and Tiffin.

Hillsdale - The Hillsdale College softball team lost five out of six in three road doubleheaders last week at Wayne State, Grand Valley State and Ferris State...Those are three of the top five teams in the conference...Junior Devon Trimmer had hits in every game last week for the Chargers...As a team, the Chargers are third in the GLIAC in triples and fourth in home runs (18)...Sophomore Jordan Kellie is tied for seventh on the school's single-season home runs list with five...Senior Dana Gould's four triples are tied for sixth on the school's single-season top 10 list...Five different players have 20 or more hits this season and nine different players have hit home runs for the team...The team is scheduled to play eight games this week, starting with Tuesday's doubleheader at home vs. Ashland.

Lake Superior State - Senior Rachel Hall (Southgate, Mich.), a center fielder who bats second in the order, was 4-for-6 during an April 6 double-header at Grand Valley State and 3-for-7 on April 10 at Northwood. She hit .538 for the week and is batting .296 for the season...Junior infielder Lacey Knoop (Reed City, Mich.) leads the Lakers in base hits with 38 and batting average at .349, while junior catcher Nichole Dunford (Chesterfield, Mich.) has a team-high 19 RBIs...Knoop is ranked 13th in the GLIAC in batting average...Senior pitcher Nikki Christensen (Marquette, Mich.) is fifth in the GLIAC in total strikeouts with 82.

Northwood - Northwood went 3-1 last week, splitting against No. 8 Ferris State before sweeping Lake Superior State...the Timberwovles are now 6-10 in the GLIAC and are currently in sixth place in the league...after starting conference play 0-6, NU has gone 6-4 in GLIAC contests to move from 10th to sixth place...Northwood's pitching was the key to the strong week - NU's ERA for the week was 1.09 and the Timberwolves held their opponents to a .196 batting average...Megan Eddy (Merrill, Mich.) tossed a complete game shutout against Lake Superior State...she did not allow a run in 11 innings of work for teh week...Alyssa Eppler (Monroe, Mich./Jefferson) and Tiffany Melgoza (Highland, Calif./San Gorgonio) each led the NU offense this week with a .308 batting average...the Timberwolves will hit the road for three GLIAC doubleheaders this week, starting Tuesday (April 14) at Saginaw Valley State.

Saginaw Valley State - The Cardinals took three-of-four games this week, with their only setback coming in a split with Ashland on Saturday (4/11). Saginaw Valley has now won 22 of their last 24 games and 14-of-16 in the GLIAC. SVSU also improved its record to 25-3 when scoring two or more runs in a game. The Cardinals pitching staff has also been dominating this season, holding opponents to a .205 batting average while striking out 232 batters. The Cardinals boast the GLIAC's second best team ERA of 1.37 and have combined for 13 shutouts on the season. Marsha Beaubien racked up eight hits last week, three of which left the park. She has now hit six homeruns in the last two weeks of play. She also had 8 RBI and scored seven runs for one of the top offenses in the GLIAC. Beaubien continues to steal bases at a clip of one a game and personally has more stolen bases than every team in the GLIAC. Jade Fulton continues to be the Cardinals go to pitcher this season. In three appearances this last week Fulton picked up two wins and two complete games for SVSU. In Saginaw Valley's 11-1 over Tiffin she fanned eight Dragon batters and then against Ashland she sat down another eight hitters via strikeout in the Cardinals 2-1 victory.

Tiffin - TU had a rough week, going 1-5 overall in 6 conference games...Only two Dragons players batted over .300 for the week, with Kenzie Kitchen leading the way with a .375 average. Tiffany Smith was the other hot hitting Dragon, posting a .353 mark with a home run and team best 6 RBI...Delaney Talmage hit .294 with 5 RBI and 4 doubles...TU as a team hit just .234 while their pitching staff was hit to the tune of a 9.68 ERA...Krista Sowers got the lone mound victory for the week, defeating Findlay 10-2 while tossing a two-hitter.

Wayne State - Wayne State went 4-2 last week with both losses by a single run (1-0, 5-4) to visiting Ashland on April 10...freshman first baseman Becca Ryan (Westland, Mich./Dearborn Divine Child) led WSU with a .529 batting average (9-17) and a .556 on-base percentage...freshman third baseman Rebecca Stanley (Waterloo, Ont./Waterloo C.I.) had a team-high eight RBI while recording six extra-base hits and a .864 slugging percentage...nine different Warriors drove in runs last week...junior pitcher Nicole Abel (Kitchener, Ont./St. Mary's) compiled a 2-0 record in two starts with a 0.70 earned-run average...she struck out 18 while walking six in 10 innings...junior pitcher Casey Hanes (Richmond, Va.) moved into fourth place on the WSU single-season strikeout list with 176...Hanes struck out 32 in 29 innings last week...Wayne State is slated to play 10 games this week starting with a home doubleheader on April 14 vs. Findlay...the first game of the Detroit Mercy twinbill on Thursday will be televised live on Comcast Channel 900...the Warriors entertain Lake Superior on Friday (make-up from March 29) and Lake Erie College on Saturday before visiting Saginaw Valley on Sunday.