EOU Softball Named CCC Team of the Week
LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Eastern Oregon University softball team has been named the Cascade Collegiate Conference Team of the Week for March 13-19, a period in which the Mountaineers shot toward the top of the standings by going 8-0.
The Mountaineers (12-7 overall, 7-2 CCC) – who had dropped four of their past five games coming into the week – got back into the mix with four-game sweeps of Northwest Christian and Great Falls, winning four games decided by one run. They took care of the Beacons in Eugene on Monday and Tuesday by scores of 7-4, 9-5, 10-2 and 1-0, and the Argos in La Grande on Saturday and Sunday by scores of 3-2, 3-2, 11-5 and 8-7. The first three games in each series were conference counters.
They did it at the plate behind a pair of senior sluggers, Cheyenne Barker and Lauren Burchak. On the week, Barker went 11-for-18 with four home runs, 14 RBI and eight runs scored. Burchark, meanwhile, went 9-for-20 with six walks, two home runs and nine RBI.
EOU also got steady work in the circle, particularly from Hailey Kline: The junior went 4-0 with a save, tossing 26 2/3 innings in which she allowed 19 hits and seven earned runs while punching out 26 batters. Senior Haylie Van Laethem also went 3-0 in 19 1/3 innings of work, and senior Alexis Spence registered her first career shutout in the 1-0 victory over NCU.
Picked to finish seventh in the CCC coaches’ preseason poll, the Mountaineers find themselves one game out of first place going into next weekend’s four-game stand at College of Idaho.