Eastern Michigan Athletics
Softball Sweeps MAC Weekly Awards
3/27/2006 12:40:25 PM | Softball
Lauren Clark and Michelle Lloyd named MAC Player/Pitcher of the Week
CLEVELAND, Ohio
--Eastern Michigan University softball players swept the Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week awards for the period ending March 25, the conference office announced today. Shortstop Lauren Clark (Flat Rock, Mich.-New Boston Huron) was named MAC West Player of the Week, while junior pitcher Michelle Lloyd (Akron, Ohio-Archbishop Hoban) was named MAC West Pitcher of the Week. The weekly award is the second this season for Clark and the first for Lloyd.Clark batted .416 over the week, with five hits. She had two doubles, two RBI, two walks, and stole her team leading sixth base. Clark went 3-for-4 at the plate with an RBI and steal in Eastern’s 4-2 win over Middle Tennessee State. In EMU’s 3-2 win against #21 Louisville, she finished 1-for-3 with an RBI. EMU went 3-1 in the week with victories over No. 21 Louisville, MAC opponent Toledo, and Middle Tennessee State.
Lloyd totaled 10.1 innings, 12 strike outs, one earned run and gave up just four hits in two starts for the Eagles. She threw the 10th no-hitter in EMU’s program history against the defending national champion and No. 12 University of Michigan squad in a rare no-hit extra innings loss. She went 7.1 innings, allowing zero hits and one unearned run in the bottom of the eighth. With the scoreless tie at the end of seven innings, the international tiebreaker rule was put into effect, which places a runner at second base at the start of each inning until the game is complete. Michigan scored on an EMU infield error. In a non-conference win over Toledo, Lloyd pitched 3.0 innings of relief, giving up just one earned run to combine with pitching counterpart Aimee Woodrum (Cincinnati, Ohio-Sycamore) to pick up the 4-3 win.
After a 3-1 finish in the 2006 Louisville Classic, the Eagles are slated for a busy week which starts with a 3:30 p.m. contest in East Lansing against Big-10 conference member Michigan State, March 28. The following day EMU will host Detroit for a home opener double header at Varsity Field, with first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m. The Eagles will open Mid-American Conference play with a double header against Western Michigan, followed by back-to-back games with Northern Illinois, April 1-2.
