AUM’s Hale, Powell tabbed SSAC’s softball pitcher, player of the week
The Auburn Montgomery senior combo of Kayla Hale and Taylor Powell have been selected the Southern States Athletic Conference Softball Pitcher of the Week and Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday.
The pair have helped the top ranked Warhawks to an 8-1 record overall, including a 4-0 showing this past weekend in the AUM/Faulkner Invitational.
Powell, a native of Alabaster, Ala., dominated in the circle, helping the Warhawks to a pair of non-conference victories over No. 8 Campbellsville 1-0 and (RV) Reinhardt 5-0. The senior hurled a total of 14 innings and allowed only one hit in each game. She entered the top of the seventh in both games with a no-hitter in tact. In the victory over Campbellsville, she surrendered a single to the 21st batter of the contest, and a lead off double in the final frame against Reinhardt ended the streak. She only walked one batter, while striking out a total of 25 batters in the pair of shutout wins to improve to 4-0 on the year.
Powell earned her way into the national leaderboads as she ranks 12th in wins, 19th in opponents batting average (.140), 21st in hits allowed per game (3.59) and 34th in innings pitched per game (6.33). At the conference level, she is second in wins and strikeouts (34), third in opponents batting average and hits allowed per game (3.59), fourth in strikeouts per game (9.39), nineth in earned run average (1.66) and 11th in hits allowed (13).
Hale, a native of Montgomery, Ala., finished the weekend 5-for-10 with a slugging percentage of 1.200. She added three runs scored, two homeruns, five RBIs and a double. She launched a solo homerun to seal a 1-0 victory over Freed-Hardeman, and picked up a three-run blast in the victory over Reinhardt. She currently leads the team in batting average (.481), homeruns (4), RBI (12) and slugging percentage (.963). Additionally, Hale leads the Warhawks in hits (13) and on-base percentage (.517).
Hale has hit her way into the national leaderboads as well as she ranks fourth in home runs, 18th in home runs per game (.44), 20th in runs batted in, 27th in slugging percentage and 35th in total bases per game (2.89). She ranks among the top performers at the conference level leading in runs batted in, and ranking second in runs batted in per game (1.33), home runs and home runs per game. Also, she ranks third in total bases (26), fourth in total bases per game and slugging percentage, fifth in batting average and hits and ranks seventh in hits per game.
The Warhawks will return to action Saturday, Feb. 27, when they host Millsaps College for a doubleheader with the first game starting at 1 p.m.
