March 14, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
Earning Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week honors on Monday, Illinois State softball senior pitcher Stacy Birk has claimed a second weekly accolade, as the league office named Birk the Prairie Farms/MVC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Week. Birk has now received the honor three times in her ISU collegiate career.
The scholar-athlete honor is the second for the No. 17 softball Redbirds in 2007, as fellow senior pitcher Shannon Nicholson claimed the award last week. It also marks the second time this season that the `Birds have collected MVC Pitcher of the Week and Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors in the same week, as Nicholson accomplished the feat last week. Birk, a Huntington Beach, Calif., native, carries a 3.34 GPA in industrial technology.
Illinois State head coach Melinda Fischer was pleased with Birk's recognition.
"Stacy is one of our players that is very responsible in the classroom," said Fischer. "I think she is a good role model for our younger players and she pays good attention to detail in her course work"
Birk earned Valley Pitcher of the Week honors after her performance last weekend at the SEMO Spring Classic in Cape Girardeau, Mo. In the circle for ISU, Birk did not allow a single run on the weekend, going 2-0 in three appearances and tabbing a 0.00 ERA. Both of Birk's wins were shutouts as ISU outscored its opponents, 22-0, in decisions over IUPUI and Belmont. She scattered just seven hits in 11.2 innings of work and didn't walk a single batter, while recording 16 strikeouts.
Birk batted in all four games last weekend, tallying a batting average of .556, Birk went 5-for-9 on the weekend, with a triple and a homerun in ISU's 11-0 rout of Belmont on Sunday. She amassed six RBI and 10 total bases, boasting a weekend slugging percentage of 1.111.
