BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Emily Turner was selected the Louisiana Softball Pitcher of the Week, while Louisiana-Lafayette’s Danyele Gomez and Nicholls State’s Leah Peterson shared the Louisiana Player of the Week honors, as announced by the Louisiana Sports Writer’s Association on Monday.
Turner went 2-1 in the circle for the Tigers, with a save and a 0.45 earned run average, including a pair of wins over No. 19 Auburn. In a mid-week game against Southeastern Louisiana, she came on in relief with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning and the winning run at the plate. She recorded three straight outs to earn the save, her first of the season.
In a three-game series against Southeastern Conference rival Auburn, Turner earned a complete-game three-hit win in the first game. She posted her 11th shutout of the season while striking out 10. She came back in the second game to earn the win in relief. She allowed two hits with no run in two-thirds innings.
In her final outing of the week, she saw her eight-game winning streak snapped. She allowed just one run on five hits with seven strikeouts, but the LSU offense could not push a run across the plate to help her cause as the Tigers stranded 13 on base for the game.
Gomez hit three home runs and posted six RBIs during ULL’s four games for the week. The senior recorded her 20th home run of the season against Troy, providing both runs in a 2-1 win over the Trojans. It also marked the second consecutive season Gomez hit 20 home runs.
On Tuesday, she knocked home runs in her first two at-bats, producing four runs for the Lady Cajuns. In that game, she set the ULL career records for RBIs and total bases. For the week, she extended her consecutive games with at least one run scored to eight.
Peterson went 10-for-18 for the week with six run scored and nine RBIs. In addition, she recorded six doubles and a home run. In a doubleheader with Grambling State, she went 5-for-7 with five RBIs and two runs scored. In a three-game series at Southland Conference rival Stephen F. Austin, she was 5-for-11 with four RBIs and four runs scored. During the week, she tied the Nicholls State record for doubles in a game with three.
This was the second Louisiana Player of the Week honor for Gomez this season and the second for Louisiana-Lafayette. It was the first Player of the Week honor for both Peterson and Nicholls State. It marked the fourth consecutive Louisiana Pitcher of the Week honor for Turner and the fifth straight honor for LSU.