UCLA third baseman Andrea Duran and Northwestern pitcher Eileen Canney have been named the Louisville Slugger/NFCA co-National Players of the Week for the week of Apr. 24-30, the association announced Wednesday.
Duran, who earned her second nod for the honor this season, accounted for over half of the Bruins’ 21 runs on the week as UCLA went 4-1 against top 16 teams.
She drove in eight runs and scored five more, hitting two home runs as well. In the Bruins’ doubleheader split with Washington, Duran doubled and scored UCLA’s second run in at 12-inning, 3-2 loss. In the second game, a 7-6 UCLA win, Duran knocked an RBI single and scored in a six-run UCLA fourth inning.
The senior from Selma, Calif., went 3-for-4 with five RBIs and three runs scored in UCLA’s 8-2 win over third-ranked Arizona. After scoring the tying run in the first following a single, she gave UCLA the lead in the fifth on a home run and extended the lead in her next at-bat with her first career grand slam.
Against Arizona State she went 2-for-2 with the game-winning RBI and a sacrifice. She laid down a sacrifice bunt in the third against the Sun Devils to set up Krista Colburn’s game-tying double. She gave the Bruins the winning runs in the fourth as she stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and singled to score the deciding two runs.
Canney was an integral part of helping Northwestern move its Big Ten regular season title clinching magic number to one. On the week she tallied three wins and a 0.34 ERA.
The junior tossed a one-hit shutout with nine strikeouts in a 5-0 win at Michigan State. In the second game of the set, she threw four and a third innings of scoreless relief to allow the Wildcats the opportunity to comeback for a 9-4 win.
The Paradise, Calif., native also helped the Wildcats to a split with No. 12 Michigan as she struck out nine and allowed one run in a 2-1 victory.