Maria Lacatena Named Horizon League Softball Player of the Week

by YSU

Thursday, Apr 23, 2015 7:57 am

Indianapolis, Indiana -- Youngstown State sophomore Maria Lacatena (Stanhope, N.J.) was named the Horizon League Softball Co-Player of the Week, the league announced on Monday afternoon. Lacatena batted .533 and led the Penguins to a 4-3 record last week.

The Penguins picked up a 6-3 win against Akron on April 14, swept Robert Morris, 4-3, and 7-0 (forfeit) on April 15 and a 17-4 win over UIC on April 18. The Penguins were leading Robert Morris 16-3 and Lacatena went 2-for-2, but the Colonials did not take the field in the fifth inning. Since the game did not reach five innings when the Colonials forfeited, the statistics for the game were voided.

This is the first weekly award for Lacatena (pronounced LACK-uh-TEN-uh) and the first for Youngstown State this season. The last YSU players to win the league's weekly awards were Miranda Castiglione and pitcher Casey Crozier on May 5, 2014.

Lacatena went 8-for-15 with four runs batted in, a double, triple, home run and scored for times. She recorded a hit in each of the last six games and had three multi-hit contests.

She had two hits against Akron on April 14, went 2-for-2 with a home run against Robert Morris on April 15, and went 2-for-3 against UIC on April 18.

On the year, Lacatena is batting .315 with five doubles, a triple, four home runs and 17 runs batted in. She is also slugging at a .522 clip and has scored 16 runs.

Against Horizon League foes, Lacatena is batting .325 (13-for-40) with RBIs in 14 games. She also has a six-game hitting streak against Horizon League opponents.

The Penguins visit Eastern Michigan, April 22, at 3 p.m. and host Green Bay in a three-game Horizon League series, April 24-25.

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