BATON ROUGE, La. – For the third time in program history, an LSU player has swept both major national weekly awards, as Bianka Bell was named the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Co-Player of the Week and the USA Softball Player of the Week it was announced by both organizations on Tuesday.
Bell matches a feat that hadn’t been claimed since 2007, when Emily Turner was bestowed with the same honors on May 1-2 that year. Before that, Kristin Schmidt was the only player to have earned the distinction as on March 3-4 in the 2004 season she captured both awards. Each went on to have All-American seasons that year.
“What an amazing weekend we had, and I definitely could not have put up the numbers I did without the people in front of me,” Bell said. “Coach Torina always stresses the importance of passing the bat into the hands of our hottest hitters and I just happened to be on this weekend. Our offense did such a fantastic job turning the lineup over, allowing us to get the number of at-bats in these games, which ultimately gave me an opportunity to make something happen for the team. I am extremely honored to have earned this award and hope to continue to make our LSU family proud.”
This is the first time Bell has been recognized nationally by the NFCA, becoming the eighth player in program history to earn the recognition and following A.J. Andrews who earned the same honor on March 3rd. She is the fifth player from the SEC this year to earn at least one of the national weekly awards, as this is just the second time in LSU softball history that two Tigers have earned this award in the same season since Britni Sneed and Trena Peel in the 2002 season.
The Tampa, Florida, native is the first to earn the USA Softball Player of the Week award since Anissa Young took home the prize on April 12, 2011, as this is the sixth time an LSU player has won it in team history. She joins the likes of Young, Kirsten Shortridge, Emily Turner and Schmidt as the only players at LSU to earn the award.
“Earning these awards is a remarkable honor for Bianka and her teammates. Her success is not by chance; she has worked hard on the field and in the weight room and has truly earned this award,” head coach Beth Torina said. “Bianka led our program to a big weekend both by her leadership and her on-field performance. She did not try to win any awards with her at bats. Instead, I am confident that she simply tried to have selfless at bats, hit the ball hard, and pass the bat to her teammates. She is a great team player, a matured leader and would tell you that the success of her team allowed for her to achieve such an award. We are lucky to have a player like her in Purple and Gold, and I am looking forward to witnessing her continued growth as a player.”
These are the third and fourth awards this week alone for Bell, who on Monday took home SEC and LSWA honors after she helped lead the Tigers to a series victory over then-No. 1 Florida in Gainesville over the weekend as LSU improved to 27-1 overall and 5-1 in the Southeastern Conference.
On one of the biggest stages of her career, Bell did not disappoint as she earned 10 hits in 14 at-bats during the series, including earning base hits in each of her first six at-bats against the Gators’ heralded pitching staff. She hit .714 for the weekend with eight RBIs and five runs scored, slugging 1.000 with a .714 on-base percentage to earn LSU’s first series win in Gainesville since 2006.
On the weekend alone she produced no less than three hits in every contest, including capturing a career best four in the opener, while having multiple RBIs in two of the three, earning a career high five in the series finale where she hit the go-ahead three-run home run to give LSU the lead and a two RBI double later in that same game to help seal the victory.
This season, Bell leads the team with 15 multi-hit outings, while sitting second on the team in multi-RBI games with 12. Her .545 batting average is currently sixth individually in the nation heading into the week, as she is in the top 50 in the country in doubles per game (46th), home runs (16th), on-base percentage (18th), RBI’s (7th), RBIs per game (10th), runs per game (5th) and slugging percentage (13th).
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