March 8, 2010
ST. LOUIS -
Illinois State junior third baseman Abby Olson hit two home runs out of the park in the final day of play at the Tennessee Classic Sunday March 7. Due to her offensive performance, Olson earned the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week honor for the second consecutive week, as announced by the league office Monday.
Olson batted .417 (5-12) in the tournament with two home runs each coming against ranked opponents. The Hartsburg, Ill., native hit one homerun against No. 15/13 Texas and another against No. 20 Tennessee.
"I think Abby had a solid showing and played very consistently throughout this tournament and came up with some key hits for us," said head coach Melinda Fischer. "She played well offensively and defensively. She seemed very comfortable in the batter's box, and I really thought her at bats were good. Abby also made great defensive plays late in the tournament."
In the bottom of the first against Texas, Jhavon Hamilton quickly got on base with a single to the left side of the Longhorn infield. Olson drove a two-run shot over the right field fence for her fifth homer of the season. Olson's homer cut the Longhorn's lead to two. In the second inning, the junior third baseman hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field that pushed Kellar across for the third Redbird run cutting the Texas lead to one.
In the first inning of the second game, Olson sent a hard line drive off of the right field wall for a single against Tennessee. Olson recorded her second hit of the game and got the Redbirds on the board in the top of the fourth with a home run over the right field fence. The homer was Olson's second of the day and sixth on the season. The third basemen's one-run shot cut Tennessee's lead to one.
After competing in all of ISU's 17 games, Olson holds a .417 batting average with 12 runs on 20 hits.
Olson is the second Redbird to receive the honor this season. Michelle Henderson earned the honor Feb. 22, 2010.
Illinois State will travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo., to take on SEMO for a midweek game Thursday afternoon before traveling to Columbia, Mo., to compete in the Tiger Invitational hosted by Missouri. The Redbirds will play in three games at the tournament.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, TRC gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
