BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – After helping lead LSU to a series win over the No. 1-ranked Florida Gators in Gainesville, junior infielder Bianka Bell was named the SEC Softball Player of the Week the league announced today, giving the Tigers its fourth weekly league award this season.
This is the first conference player of the week award for Bell in her LSU career, as she is now the fourth player this season to earn at least one of the conference’s picks and the third this year to take home the top honor. Allie Walljasper was named the freshman of the week, while Sahvanna Jaquish and A.J. Andrews took home the player of the week award in consecutive weeks.
In arguably one of the biggest regular-season series’ in program history, Bell led all LSU players with 10 hits as the Tigers earned a series win over the Florida for the first time since 2006, driving in eight RBIs on 14 at-bats with a 1.000 slugging percentage and .714 on-base percentage.
The junior and Florida native was nearly unflappable at the plate, as she reached base safely with hits in each of her first six at-bats over games one and two, extending a streak that stretched back to last weekend to 10 plate appearances. Bell earned the first four-hit game of her career amid three multi-hit outings, driving in five RBIs on Sunday in the finale which was also a career high among two multi-RBI contests.
On Sunday with LSU and Florida tied at 3-3, she hit the go-ahead home run on a three-run shot to put LSU up, and drove two more in on a two-RBI double later that game.
For all of the latest news and information on Tiger softball, visit www.lsusports.net/softball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball along with @lsusoftball and @BethTorina on Twitter and @lsusb on Instagram.