Brooke Mitchell Collects Another Sun Belt Accolade
Louisiana's ace pitcher named Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week for the fifth time this season
LOUISIANA La. - Another week in the pitching circle equaled another honor for Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball ace pitcher Brooke Mitchell.
For the fifth time this season (out of six weeks) the Pasadena, Texas, native was named the Sun Belt Conference's Pitcher of the Week, released by the league office Monday afternoon.
The award ends a one-week hiatus for Mitchell whose string of four straight league honors was snapped after the Cajuns had the week off March 8-14. Every week that she's been nominated for the award she has won.
The Cajuns have now won 30 weekly honors in three-plus seasons under former Ragin' Cajuns All-American and current head coach Stefni Lotief. Louisiana-Lafayette has picked up seven weekly awards this season including five of the six pitcher awards handed out.
Mitchell (22-3) started every game for the 10th-ranked Ragin' Cajuns (28-4) last week, pitching 33 innings and recording 50 strikeouts. She collected wins over DePaul, Cal State Fullerton and Princeton at the prestigious KIA Klassic in Fullerton, Calif.
She now has 294 strikeouts on the year and is only six strikeouts away from becoming the first pitcher in school history to record 300 whiffs in a single season.
On Saturday against Princeton, Mitchell broke the school's single-season strikeout record that she set just last season with her 280th strikeout of the season in the second inning.
She stands just 84 strikeouts away from breaking Kyla Hall's school career record of 820 set from 1991-94. The junior right-hander has 737 career strikeouts entering this week's action.
In a matchup with the U.S. Olympic Team Friday afternoon at the KIA Klassic, Mitchell fanned six Olympians and held the nation's best to just three runs and seven hits. Team USA's three runs marked only the third time in 23 games that the Olympians were held to under four runs in a game.
Mitchell and her teammates returned from Fullerton, Calif., Monday afternoon. The Ragin' Cajuns will be back in action on Wednesday, March 24 in a 5 p.m. doubleheader against Nicholls State (14-13) at LADY Cajuns Softball Park.
LOUISIANA SI
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