Photo Courtesy of ACC
GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Florida State’s Maddie O’Brien has been named this week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Softball Player of the Week, while teammate Jessica Burroughs earned ACC Pitcher of the Week honors.
O’Brien nearly had a perfect week at the plate for the Seminoles. The redshirt junior hit .857 (6-for-7) with three doubles, two home runs and seven RBI in five victories against Pitt and Syracuse. O’Brien recorded a streak of reaching base in 18 consecutive plate appearances over all five games of the week – only being retired in one plate appearance (a pop out in the third on April 20). O’Brien tied an NCAA record with four intentional walks at Pitt in game two on April 16. O’Brien’s eight consecutive walks over all three Syracuse games tied an ACC record (Jen Yee, GT 2010) and is the third longest streak in NCAA history. O’Brien ended the week with 12 walks (five intentional), a 2.143 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage of .950.
Burroughs was key in FSU’s sweep of the Panthers and Orange, posting a 2-0 record and a 0.00 ERA over three starts, recording 22 strikeouts over 14.0 innings against only five total walks. At Pitt, Burroughs struck out five batters in the first two innings on her way to nine total punchouts in the road ACC win, allowing just two hits over five innings pitched. Burroughs matched that feat on April 19 by fanning five Orange batters in the first six outs of game two of the doubleheader. Burroughs finished that outing with a complete-game shutout, tying a career high with 10 strikeouts and just two walks. In a controlled start on April 20, Burroughs allowed just one base runner in 2.0 innings and recorded three strikeouts. Burroughs is now 15-1 on the season with an ERA of 2.12 and has the second-lowest opponent batting average in the ACC (.198).
