Weekly Softball Honors Claimed By JU's Chavez, USF's Closs

CHICAGO ---Judson University's Tatyana Chavez (Lansing, Ill.) has been named the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Softball Player of the Week, while University of St. Francis' Jordan Closs (Niantic, Ill.) has claimed CCAC Pitcher of the Week recognition for the seven-day period ending March 10, it was announced by the league office on Tuesday.

Chavez authored four multi-hit games among the eight that she appeared in last week en route to a .370 batting average.  Among her 10 hits in 27 official plate appearances, three went for doubles and one was a home run.  She also drove in seven runs, while scoring three herself.

The junior first baseman opened the week with a 3-for-4, four-RBI game in a 7-3 victory over Mount Vernon Nazarene University (Ohio) last Monday.  She also produced a pair of hits that same day in a 6-2 loss to Bellevue University (Neb.).  Her other multi-hit affairs both came on Thursday in a 5-4 victory over Dordt College (Iowa) (2-for-4) and a 3-2 decision over Bellevue (3-for-4), where she had her home run.

Judson went 3-5 on the week.

Closs had a busy week, pitching in five games and going 3-1 with a 1.54 earned run average.  Included were a pair of 1-0 shutouts over University of Jamestown (N. Dak.) on Tuesday and Concordia University (Neb.) on Thursday. 

The sophomore righthander put together a streak of 23 1/3 innings of scoreless pitching over the seven-day stretch starting with four innings of three-hit softball in an 8-0 win over Waldorf University (Iowa) last Monday to open the week.  One day later, she struck out nine batters, while allowing just four hits in the victory over Jamestown.

In her other win, the victory over Concordia on Thursday, Closs pitched a one-hitter.  In that game, she recorded six strikeouts against three walks.  She also yielded just one run on four hits in 5 1/3 innings in a no-decision against NAIA No. 14 Northwestern College (Iowa) on Saturday.

USF is 9-7 on the campaign after going 5-3 this past week.

Other Player Nominees: Brittany Osborne (St. Francis), Charlie Sartoris (Trinity Christian), Kylee Slack (Calumet St. Joseph), Jordan Watts (Indiana South Bend).

Other Pitcher Nominees: Myleigh Halmon (Trinity Christian), Victoria Jenson (Calumet St. Joseph), Abigail Yarnell (Indiana South Bend).