Luper wins a conference honor for the third straight week

GREENSBORO, April 15, 2008 – For Jennifer Luper it was old hat. For Ryanne Hill it was a first and for the future of the North Carolina A&T softball program it is reason for even more optimism.

Luper, a freshman out of Fort Mill, S.C., earned MEAC Pitcher of the Week for the week of April 7-13. It was Luper’s third straight week earning a MEAC weekly honor. The last two weeks she was the conference’s pitcher of the week. Three weeks ago she earned MEAC Rookie of the Week honors. This week, the rookie of the week honor went to Ryanne Hill. Hill, a Charlotte native, earned her first career conference weekly honor.

Luper had another outstanding week. Luper was 4-0 during the week with a 1.22 ERA. She struck out 22 batters during the week, including 13 strikeouts against Savannah State. Two of Luper’s wins came against conference foe Florida A&M. Opponents hit just .221 against Luper during the week. Luper is 15-3 on the season and has won her last eight decisions. Over that span, she has a 0.73 ERA.

Hill had her best week of the season. She hit .524 in six games last week. Out of the 11 hits she earned, five of them were extra base hits including two home runs and two triples. The power hitter did not strike out during the week and recorded eight RBIs and scored eight times. She improved her batting average by 44 points during the week and posted an enormous 1.048 slugging percentage.