Feb. 26, 2007
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech’s Caitlin Lever and Virginia Tech’s Angela Tincher were named Atlantic Coast Conference Softball Players of the Week, announced by the league office on Monday. Lever, a senior from Amherst, N.Y., earns the honor for the first time in her career, while Tincher earns second straight honor.
Lever led the Yellow Jackets to their first ever NFCA Leadoff Classic Championship, sharing the title with No. 13 Michigan. The outfielder set a new school record with a 5-for-5 performance against No. 16 Baylor in the opening game of the tourney to lead the Jackets to an upset 10-7 victory, smashing a three-run home run and driving in four runs.
She helped lead the comeback against Tennessee Tech in the semifinal game of the Leadoff Classic with a solo home run to right field in the fifth inning to get the Jackets within one. For her efforts, Lever was named to the Leadoff Classic All-Tournament Team.
She ended the week going 12-for-24, with seven runs scored, eight runs batted in, one double, two home runs and walked once.
Also competing in the NFCA Leadoff Classic last week, Virginia Tech advanced to the gold bracket behind strong pitching from Tincher. The Eagle Rock, Va., native pitched just the second perfect game in Leadoff Classic history in Friday’s 4-0 shutout victory against Lehigh. She struck out 16 and gave up no hits, runs or walks. On Saturday, the junior hurler struck out 12 in a 4-0 shutout of No. 18 Georgia and then turned around to strike out 13 more in a 3-1 win over Illinois State.
Tincher, who was named to the NFCA Leadoff Classic team, went 3-1 on the week with 54 strikeouts and a 0.52 earned run average.
The Yellow Jackets will host Oakland University (2-2) in a single game tomorrow at 3 p.m. The game can be followed on www.ramblinwreck.com. -30-
