March 13, 2006

by Matt Bosen, Redhawks Sports Information

Cape Girardeau, MO. - (Monday, March 13, 2006) Southeast Missouri State sophomore third baseman Michelle Summers (Glendale, CA/Hoover) was named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week for her performance last week for the Redhawks softball team. She is the first member of the Redhawks softball team to receive the OVC Player of the Week honor this season.

Summers batted a robust .542 for the week with 13 hits in 24 at bats in six games. Five of her hits went for extra bases, including two home runs and three doubles, leading to her slugging percentage of .917 for the week. She had five RBI's and five runs scored in her six games played. On Saturday in the second game of the Redhawks round-robin against IUPUI she had a spectacular day at the plate, finishing 6-6 with three RBI's and two runs scored helping the Redhawks to an 18-7 victory.

On Sunday in the first game of a doubleheader with Northern Iowa, Summers connected on her fourth homerun of the season, which ties her for the team lead. The homerun was the 14th of her career which ranks her second on the all-time home runs list at Southeast.

Summers was able to nearly double her season batting average during her six game hot streak, raising it to .340 good enough for second on the team behind only Megan McDonald (Cape Girardeau, MO/Cape Central High). For the season she has 18 hits with half of them going for extra bases, four home runs and five doubles. She has 35 total bases and a slugging percentage of .660 and she leads the team in both of those categories.

Her four homeruns are also good enough to tie her for third in the Ohio Valley Conference. She also ranks seventh in the conference in total bases after playing in only 14 games while others on the list have played between 16 and 29 games. Her .660 slugging percentage is good enough for fifth in the conference and she is the highest ranking sophmore in the conference.

Summers and her Redhawk teammates return to action on Saturday March, 18th in Clarksville, TN with a doubleheader against conference foe Austin Peay. The Redhawks next home game will be Saturday March, 25th against another conference foe Tennessee-Martin with a doubleheader set to start at 1:00 p.m. with the second game following at approximately 3:00 p.m. at the Southeast Softball Complex.