Softball | 4/10/2023 12:10:00 PM
EAST GREENSBORO – The month of April has been good for the North Carolina A&T softball team thus far. The Aggies are 5-3 since the month started. On Monday, they received an additional two Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) weekly awards to add to the one the program received last week.
The conference named senior center fielder Jai Deese player of the week, and sophomore Joey Barkhimer secured co-pitcher of the week. The two awards bring the softball team's total weekly honor count this season to four. The Aggies went 3-2 last week with a doubleheader split at USC Upstate, and they took two out of three from CAA foe Monmouth in West Long Branch, NJ.
Deese hit safely in all five games last week, including three multiple-hit performances, extending her hitting streak to seven straight games. However, Deese's most significant contribution during the Monmouth series came on the finale on Saturday when she went 2-for-3 with a home run, two RBI, and two runs scored as the Aggies clinched the series with a 7-2 win.
In Game 1 of the Monmouth series, Deese went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. She batted .471 (8-for-17) for the week, posting a .526 on-base percentage and a .824 slugging percentage in the process. Deese is having a standout senior season thus far. In 35 games, she leads the team in batting (.351), home runs (5), hits (34), RBI (19), total bases (54) and slugging percentage (.567).
She ranks eighth in batting, seventh in total bases, sixth in slugging percentage, ninth in RBI and third in home runs in the CAA.
Barkhimer earned the winning decision in all three of A&T's wins last week, going 3-0 for the week to improve to 4-6 on the season. She pitched 14.1 innings for the week, posting a minuscule 0.49 ERA. Barkhimer opened the week by pitching 3.0 scoreless innings and striking out four in a 3-2 win over Upstate on Tuesday.
Her most impressive outing came on Friday when she pitched 8.0 spectacular scoreless innings in a 1-0 extra-innings win over Monmouth in the second game of the doubleheader. In what tied her longest career outing, she gave up six hits and totaled three strikeouts. She also got the win on Saturday versus Monmouth.
A&T will try to keep their winning ways going in April as they face the Campbell Fighting Camels in a 2 p.m. doubleheader at the Lady Aggies Softball Complex on Tuesday, April 11.
