INDIANAPOLIS – University of Missouri-St. Louis senior first baseman Brianna Butler and Drury University junior pitcher Shelby Weissenbach have been named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Players of the Week in the sport of softball, the conference office announced Monday.
Butler hit safely in all three victories last week, going 7-for-12 at the plate for a .583 batting average to go along with a 1.417 slugging percentage. Among those seven hits, three were homeruns and one went for a double, giving her a total of 10 runs batted in.
In Friday’s 5-4 victory against Fort Hays State, Butler was 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI. She came back Saturday for two outings and went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a homer in the Tritons’ 10-2 victory over Minnesota-Makato, and then responded in a big way in their 12-7 win over East Central. To close out the week, Butler was 2-for-4 against ECU with both of her hits soaring over the outfield fence to amass six RBI on the day.
The Troy, Illinois, native earns her second consecutive weekly award and third of her career as she was first honored on April 22, 2014.
Weissenbach notched a 2-0 record with a 1.17 earned run average last week, helping Drury win two of its first four games at the Eight State Classic hosted by Arkansas Monticello. She struck out 11 batters in 12.0 innings of action, giving up eight hits and two earned runs while walking five.
She entered in the seventh inning for one out following Northeastern State’s go-ahead run in the Panthers’ 5-4 loss Friday afternoon, and then returned to the circle for a pair of wins to complete the week. In Friday night’s 8-6 win over Southern Nazarene, Weissenbach earned the victory for the Panthers going 4.2 innings with six strikeouts and allowed six hits. She finished the week Saturday with a seven-inning, one-hit 3-0 shutout of Panhandle State, an effort that saw her strike out four in the victory.
A native of Moreno Valley, California, this is Weissenbach’s first career weekly award.