(Photo Courtesy of Upstate Athletics)
Spartanburg, S.C. – Following a 7-0 week and a pair of historical performances, USC Upstate swept the A-Sun weekly softball awards as Anna Miller was named the A-Sun Pitcher of the Week and Shellie Robinson was named the A-Sun Player of the Week.
“I am proud of both Anna and Shellie earning the weekly awards from the A-Sun,” said Upstate head coach Chris Hawkins. “They both have worked very hard and have been big parts to our success, not only to start this season, but since they have been here. It was amazing to see Anna throw two no-hitters in back-to-back starts and Shellie continues to excel at the plate. I am very happy for both of them.”
Miller earned weekly honors from the A-Sun, the first of her career at Upstate, after tossing back-to-back no-hitters against Gardner-Webb and Liberty last week. The two no-no’s were the third and fourth of her Upstate career after transferring to Upstate from the College of Siskiyous junior college for the 2013 season. She tossed a perfect game against Jacksonville State in the NCAA Tournament a year ago.
Miller went seven innings with a career-high 14 strikeouts for her first no-hitter of the week in the second game of the doubleheader sweep at Gardner-Webb to begin the week. The only blemish on her pitching line was a walk allowed in the second inning. Three days later, she got the start against Liberty and struck out 12 batters en route to the no-hitter in six innings as Upstate trounced the Flames, 9-0. She took a perfect game into the sixth inning before an error allowed Liberty’s only base runner to reach base in the game.
Miller finished the week by getting the start against Furman in the finale of the Spartan Classic at Cyrill Stadium. She did not allow a hit until the fifth inning, running her streak of innings without a hit to 19. When she allowed a two-run homer in the sixth against Furman Sunday, it snapped a string of 20 innings without surrendering a run and 25 innings without surrendering an earned run. She finished with 11 strikeouts in the game.
Miller is the second Spartan pitcher to earn weekly honors from the A-Sun this season. Hannah Alexander earned co-pitcher of the week honors after tossing a perfect game during against Virginia in the opening weekend of the season.
Robinson had a strong week, hitting .478 with four home runs, eight RBIs and nine runs to lead the Spartans at the plate. Eight of her 11 hits were extra-base hits, while she had four multi-hit and multi-RBI performances. She had two hits in each of the win against Ball State, the doubleheader sweep at Garnder-Webb and the victory over Liberty.
Robinson also made program history in the first game of the sweep at Gardner-Webb. When she hit a solo home run to punctuate Upstate’s victory, she broke the school’s Division I era home run record and added to that total against Western Carolina. She stands atop the DI era list with 35 homers and stands just 11 shy of the school’s all-time record of 46 hit by Upstate Athletics Hall of Fame member Stacey Berrong.
In addition to her performance at the plate, Robinson was perfect in the field with eight putouts. She now has five career A-Sun Player of the Week honors, the second most weekly awards from the A-Sun in program history behind the nine secured by all-time great pitcher Morgan Childers. Robinson was also named the national player of the week by College Sports Madness on Feb. 11.
