2022 MIAA Softball Athletes of the Week: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The MIAA announced its fifth Softball Athletes of the Week, presented by Mammoth Turf, for the 2022 season. Washburn swept this week’s honors with Hadley Kerschen selected as the Hitter of the Week and Jaycee Ginter as the Pitcher of the Week.
 
MIAA Hitter of the Week – Hadley Kerschen – Washburn
Hadley Kerschen batted .500 as the Ichabods went 6-0 last week in double headers against Rockhurst, Missouri S&T and Truman State. The sophomore second baseman totaled seven hits and seven runs with three doubles and drove in a team-high 10 during the week. Kerschen raised her batting average 18 points during the week recording at least one RBI in each of the games.
 
MIAA Pitcher of the Week – Jaycee Ginter – Washburn
Jaycee Ginter was a perfect 3-0 in the circle with a 0.39 earned run average with three starts, two complete games, a shutout and a combined shutout last week for the Ichabods. Offensively, Ginter hit .579 with 11 hits and five doubles while adding three home runs and nine RBI with a 1.316 slugging percentage. She scored a team-high eight runs as the Ichabods went 6-0 on the week. Ginter struck out seven batters against Minnesota Crookston and then surrendered a career-high 14 against. In 18 innings of pitching this past week, the sophomore allowed only one earned run holding opponents to a .190 batting average.
 
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Hitters
Sarah Tiffany – Fort Hays State
Sarah Tiffany had a big weekend at the plate for Fort Hays State hitting .750 over four games with nine hits in 12 at bats. The sophomore posted a 1.000 slugging percentage for the week with three doubles and six singles. She drove in two runs and scored three overall while finished a perfect 2-of-2 on stolen base attempts. Tiffany also had two or more hits in three of the four games, and her two RBI came in a 4-for-4 performance in the 7-0 win over Truman.
 
Olivia Daugherty – Northwest Missouri
Olivia Daugherty hit .400 with four home runs and eight RBI as Northwest went 1-3 in doubleheader action with Truman State and Augustana. Daugherty collected a hit in each of the four games. She went 1-for-4 with a home run and two RBI in game one against Truman State. The junior then went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI, which include a home run in game two against the Bulldogs. Daugherty hit two home runs in game one against No. 10-ranked Augustana. She finished 2-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBI in game one against the Vikings then finished the week going 1-for-3 in game two.
 
Kara Amos – Missouri Southern
Kara Amos helped lead the Lions to a trio of sweeps over Northern State on Monday, McKendree on Friday and Rockhurst on Saturday. For the week, she averaged a .526 batting average while slugging .789 with 10 hits, five being doubles, scored four runs and had six RBI and as when she stepped in the circle to pitch she went 3-0 with 14 strikeouts in 18.0 innings of work. This past week Amos had a hit in all but one game and recorded a double in all but two games. In the second game against McKendree which was a 10-2 run rule win, Amos finished going 3-for-3 with two RBI and scored a run herself. Against Rockhurst, the sophomore recorded a 10-2 run rule win as well she went 3-for-3 from the plate with two RBI while scoring twice and hit two doubles as well and picked up the win after throwing five innings.
 
Pitchers
Andrea Morales – Rogers State
Andrea Morales was nearly untouchable in the circle as she finished 2-0 last weekend at the Drury Classic. The 2021 pitcher of the year did not allow a run in the two outings with 20 strikeouts. In a 1-0 win over Drury last Friday, the senior earned the complete game shutout with seven strikeouts and only three hits and one walk. In the 8-0 win over William Jewell on Saturday, Morales again earned the complete game shutout with 13 strikeouts and only one hit over 5.0 innings.
 
Bailey Carlson – Fort Hays State
Bailey Carlson pitched two complete seven-inning games against Missouri S&T and Truman and did not allow an earned run all weekend. Both of her runs allowed in a 3-2 win against Missouri S&T were unearned, and then she shutout Truman the following day. Carlson finished with seven strikeouts for the week. She allowed five hits to Missouri S&T and just four to Truman. It was Carlson’s first two wins of her collegiate career in the circle.
 
Bailey Lacy – Missouri Southern
Bailey Lacy helped the Lions to a trio of sweeps taking out Northern State on Monday, McKendree on Friday and Rockhurst on Saturday. For the week, the junior went 3-0 with 19.0 innings of work striking out 24 batters while having a 1.42 ERA with three complete games and limited opposing batters to a .257 batting average. Against Northern State, she struck out seven in the Lions 5-3 win allowing only one earned run in the game in her seven innings of work. Against McKendree, Lacy struck out seven batters again this time in five innings as the Lions run ruled them 10-2. To close the week she struck out 10 Rockhurst batters in seven shutout innings as the Lions won 4-0 with Lacy holding the Hawks bats to just four hits and issued out only one walk to earn her third win of the week.
 
ALSO NOMINATED
Hitters: Makenzie Cooper – Central Missouri, Lexy Dobson – Central Oklahoma, Lana Gass – Rogers State, Carlee Liesch – Nebraska Kearney, Taylor Lambert – Pittsburg State, Leslie Callahan – Lincoln
Pitchers: Stacy Bott – Nebraska Kearney, Janine Gutierrez – Newman, Aidan Dayberry - Lincoln