March 15, 2006
DAVIS, Calif. - UC Davis swept this week's Division I Independent Softball honors as all three individual awards went to Aggies. For the second straight week, Ashley Johnson was named Player of the Week. Lauren Pieretti was named Pitcher of the Week, and Roxanne Hannan received Newcomer-of-the-Week honors.
Johnson continues to swing the hottest bat in the Aggie lineup. The sophomore batted .471 in five games last week, connecting for eight hits in 17 at-bats. On March 11, she went 2-for-4 with two RBIs against Southern Illinois, which is receiving votes in this week's USA Today/NFCA Top-25 Poll. Johnson drove in a total of six runs as she helped the Aggies to a 3-2 record for the week. She has hit safely in 13 of her last 22 at-bats (.591) and is second on the team with a .377 batting average. She leads the team with 15 RBIs.
Pieretti had one of the most dominant weeks for an Aggie pitcher this year as she went 1-0 in two appearances with a 0.81 ERA. The junior allowed just one earned run in eight and two-thirds innings pitched. Her first assignment came in relief against no. 11 Arizona State. In that game, she went three and two-thirds innings and allowed just one hit and struck out eight Sun Devils in the process. Her other appearance resulted in a five-inning, complete game victory over St. Francis (NY) on March 12. Pieretti is 1-0 on the year and is striking out 13.0 batters per seven innings.
Hannan also had a fruitful week for UC Davis. The freshman went 7-for-15 for a .467 batting average las week. She went a combined 3-for-6 with a home run in the Aggies' games, March 11, against Southern Illinois and Arizona State. On the year, Hannan is tops on the team with a .385 average. She is tied with Johnson with a team-leading three home runs.
UC Davis (8-14) has already posted more wins than in 2005. The Aggies are next in action March 24-26 when they take part in the Stanford Invitational II. UC Davis is scheduled to take on Princeton, Santa Clara and Illinois before playing a doubleheader with no. 5 Stanford on the final day.
