March 21, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
Collecting her second such honor of the year, Illinois State softball senior Stacy Birk has been selected as the Prairie Farms Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Week, the league office announced Wednesday. Birk also garnered the award last week, as the Redbirds have tallied three straight weeks of recognition with fellow senior hurler Shannon Nicholson earning the honor on March 7.
Birk is just the second Valley student-athlete this season to win the award in consecutive weeks, and Illinois State is the second institution to receive the honor for three consecutive weeks. With seven females being honored so far in the 2006-07 school year, Illinois State has collected the most female scholar-athlete of the week honors among all 10 MVC schools.
Birk's 3-1 week was highlighted by Sunday's win over UNI when the senior pitcher tossed a one-hitter to down the Panthers 7-0. Birk had a perfect game going through five innings and ended the win with just a single walk and the one hit. On the week, Birk appeared in four games, pitching three complete games and picking up the win in each one of those match-ups. Pitching 22.0 innings through four games, the right hander gave up 17 hits, five walks and fanned 12 batters.
She also made school history against UNI on March 17, when Birk started her 96th game in the circle for ISU, assuming the top spot on the career starts list. After Sunday's shutout over UNI, Birk needs just one more win and one more shutout to tie Redbird records for career wins and shutouts.
Additionally, at the plate for Illinois State, Birk batted at a .462 clip, recording six hits, including two doubles and a homer, in 13 trips to the plate. Birk drove in five RBI while posting a slugging percentage of .846.
The No. 17 Illinois State softball team returns to action this afternoon, taking on DePaul at 3 p.m. at Redbird Field.
