Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Kaitlin Colosimo (Orland Park, Ill.) and Mallory Ruggles (Nashville, Ill.) are the Great Lakes Valley Conference Softball Pitcher and Player of the Week, respectively.
The duo helped the 22nd-ranked Cougars go 6-0 against GLVC foes last week and earn the No. 2 Seed in the upcoming GLVC Softball Tournament.
SIUE secured a pair of 1-0 victories at Missouri-St. Louis on Monday before pulling out a couple of doubleheader sweeps at Bellarmine and Northern Kentucky over the weekend.
Colosimo collected four of the six wins over the span and posted an earned run average of 1.00. She finished the week with 21 innings in the circle and recorded 25 strikeouts while walking just two.
The junior standout picked up a pair of shutouts and surrendered just four earned runs in the four contests. Her best outing came in SIUE’s 8-0 win at Northern Kentucky on Saturday where she struck out eight and allowed just two hits in five innings.
Colosimo is now a GLVC-best 24-5 and boasts an ERA of 1.17. She has completed 24 of her 25 starts on the year and has 197 strikeouts in 179.1 innings of work.
Ruggles, a senior first baseman for the Cougars, was also instrumental in the six wins last week.
She went 9-for-18 (.500) at the plate and delivered seven RBIs and three runs scored.
In SIUE’s thrilling extra-inning 6-5 win over Bellarmine on Sunday, Ruggles connected for two home runs, including a three-run blast in the top of the ninth inning. The home run capped the Cougars’ four-run game-winning rally and was Ruggles’ team-best eighth of the season.
In the Cougars’ final three-games of the regular season, Ruggles went 8-for-11 with six RBIS, three runs, a double and two home runs.
She is now hitting .350 on the season with 30 RBIs and 15 runs scored.
SIUE is now 41-9 overall and has won 14 straight games. The Cougars will meet seven-seed Missouri-St. Louis in the first round of the GLVC Tournament at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Illinois on Thursday.
Other top performers in the GLVC last week included Drury’s Kelly Ross, Lewis’ Kelly Dianis, Missouri S&T’s Ashley Wallingford, Missouri-St. Louis’ Allyson DeFosset and Kelly Essner, Rockhurst’s Erica Stone, Saint Joseph’s Jessica Privett, Southern Indiana’s Kristin Eickholt and UIndy’s Jenny Swanson and Megan Russell.