Ball State University Athletics
Montalto Picks Up Pair Of Player Of The Week Honors
March 13, 2012 | Softball
MUNCIE, Ind. - - After helping guide the Ball State softball team to a 5-0 record last week, senior catcher Amanda Montalto (Las Vegas, Nev./Palo Verde) has been named both the Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week and the College Sports Madness MAC Player of the Week.
Montalto, a four-time career MAC West Division Player of the Week, posted a .529 batting average in helping the Cardinals secure five wins last week, extending the team's current winning streak to seven games.
She smashed at least one hit in all five games last week, with two hits in four of the five contests. The effort extended her career-long hitting streak to 12 games and she has also reached base safely in her last 23 games played.
"Amanda is seeing the ball very well right now," said Ball State head coach Craig Nicholson. "To have a 12-game hitting streak and to have reached base in 23 straight games is a testament to the amount of work she puts into her game. She never takes an at bat off and provided us with a number of clutch plate appearances last week."
Of Montatlo's team-leading nine hits last week, four were extra-base knocks including two doubles, a triple and a home run. She also drew a pair of walks. Her six runs scored led the Cardinals, while her six RBI tied for second on the team.
She hit her 26th career home run in the second game of a doubleheader at North Florida last Wednesday, while scoring the game-winning run in the first contest of the twin bill after reaching base with a single.
In the Cardinals' Friday contests at the Stetson Classic versus the tournament host Hatters, Montalto reached base on a first-inning walk and eventually came around to score what proved to be the game-winning run.
In BSU's final game of the Stetson Classic Sunday, she drove in the game-winning run versus Northern Colorado with a bases loaded, two-out triple in the bottom of the sixth. In all, Montalto was responsible for three of BSU's five game-winning runs on the week
With a team-leading eight doubles so far this season, Montalto enters the week ranked 12th in the nation with a 0.42 double-per-game average. Her team-high .436 batting average is 56th among all NCAA Division I student-athletes, as is her 0.11 triples-per-game mark.
Montalto is the fourth straight BSU student-athlete to earn the league's top weekly honor for a position player this season, joining sophomore Taylor Rager (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern), sophomore Audrey Bickel (Munster, Ind./Andrean) and freshman Hanne Stuedemann (Mattawan, Mich./Mattawan) who earned the honors Feb. 21, Feb. 28 and March 11, respectively.
Rager was also named the College Sports Madness MAC Player of the Week for her efforts during BSU's opening weekend.
Senior pitcher Audrey Workman (Wickenburg, Ariz./Wickenburg) was also named the MAC West Pitcher of the Week Feb. 21.
