BATON ROUGE – Former LSU All-American pitchers Rachele Fico and Brittany Mack fired shutout performances to collect their second wins of the 2013 National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) season as the Akron Racers took three of four games from the New York/New Jersey Comets last weekend.
Mack came away with five strikeouts against one walk and stranded seven baserunners during her Saturday start. She was touched up for three hits during her five shutout innings and improved her record to 2-1 for the season. Offensively, Mack was supported by Brigette Del Ponte and Sam Marder home runs during the 6-2 win.
Fico capped the Saturday doubleheader sweep for the Racers and sat down the first six batters she faced. She surrendered only three hits and registered three strikeouts versus two walks over her five spotless frames. With the win, Fico evened her mark at 2-2 for the season. Akron’s offense pounded out 12 hits sparked by a pair of Del Ponte dingers en route to the 9-0 victory.
At the halfway point of the regular season, Akron has tallied a 10-14 record and is 7.5 games behind the Chicago Bandits in the NPF standings. The Racers open up a four-game set with the Bandits starting Thursday.
National Pro Fastpitch is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The league, created to give elite female fastpitch players the opportunity to pursue a professional career in their chosen sport, has operated since 1997 under the names of Women’s Pro Fastpitch (WPF) and Women’s Pro Softball League (WPSL).
NPF is the Official Development Partner of Major League Baseball in the category of women’s fastpitch softball since 2002.