The baseball and softball seasons are well underway, and so far, a Hornets baseball player has earned player of the week honors. This week, the baseball team swept the honors, and the Lady Hornets softball team added a player of the week honor after their previous weekend of work.
At the Washburn Invitational, the Lady Hornets received 18 2/3 stellar innings from freshman Hannah Butterbaugh. Those innings include a complete game against Minnesota State-Mankato to start the tournament. The next day, she added six 2/3 innings of shutout ball out of the bullpen, and to cap off the weekend, added five more innings of shutout ball over Drury. She also had 18 strikeouts over the weekend, helping the Lady Hornets go 4-1 at the Invitational.
Image Courtesy: ESU Athletics
For the Hornets baseball team, they opened MIAA play and swept the player of the week honors, starting with a now three-time winner of the award this season, sophomore Colby Deaver. Deaver got the Saturday start in the Hornets series against Arkansas-Fort Smith, where he went five innings, striking out nine batters, and allowing one unearned run. He continues to not allow earned runs as he is up to 23 innings without allowing an earned run, to go with a ridiculous 35 strikeouts to two walks ratio.
In the batter’s box, the Hornets got a stellar weekend from junior Noah Steele as he earned the MIAA hitter of the week. Over the weekend, he went 6-for-10, hitting two home runs, one double, driving in 10 runs, drawing six walks, and tacking on nine runs scored in the sweep of Arkansas-Fort Smith. One of those home runs was via the grand slam variety en route to a six-RBI day, a career high, on Saturday.
Next outings for the teams see the Lady Hornets begin their final non-conference games on Feb. 28 as they travel to Shawnee to play Maryville. The Hornets welcome Northwest Missouri for their MIAA home opener on Feb. 27 at the Trusler Sports Complex.