AU’s Petersen Named NFCA Player of the Week

AURORA, Ill. April 20, 2005 - Aurora University senior softball standout Taylor Petersen has been named Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III Player of the Week for the week of April 11-17.

For the week, in which she was also named Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference Player of the Week for the fourth time this season, Petersen hit .524 (11-for-21) with four doubles, five RBIs, and three runs in six games. She went 2-for-7 with an RBI and a run scored in a doubleheader split with Wheaton College (Ill.). She went 3-for-4, scored a run, and drove in another in a 6-3 loss to Carthage College.

Petersen was brilliant in the circle for the Spartans, recording the win in three of the team’s four wins for the week. In the three complete-game performances, she allowed 11 hits and three earned runs for a 1.00 ERA. She recorded two strikeouts to just two walks.

She allowed one run, none earned, on four hits in the win over Wheaton. She followed that up with a complete game outing against Carthage in which she gave up three runs on four hits in the winning effort. Two days later she threw a complete-game shutout against Robert Morris College – Springfield (Ill.), allowing just three hits while registering 11 strikeouts.

Petersen, the school’s career strikeouts and shutouts leader, is a perfect 15-0 on the year in leading Aurora to a 23-4-1 record. She has the nation’s fourth-best ERA with a 0.29 and 148 strikeouts in 95 and one-third innings of work. She has allowed just eight runs, while opponents are hitting at a .131 clip against her.

Offensively, Petersen is one of the team’s top hitters with a .435 average. She has three home runs, six doubles, and two triples, and she has scored 28 runs and driven in 17.

Next action for the Spartan softball team comes on Wednesday, April 20, when they host Concordia University (Ill.) in an NIIC double header beginning at 3:00 p.m. and on Saturday, April 23, when they travel to Clarke College (Iowa) for a 2:00 p.m. NIIC double header.

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