BATON ROUGE, La. – A day after being named the league’s player of the week, LSU senior Bianka Bell was named the USA Softball Collegiate National Player of the Week the Amateur Softball Association and USA Softball announced on Tuesday.
With the honor, Bell becomes just the second player ever at LSU to earn the national governing body’s weekly award multiple times, joining former Tiger Emily Turner who won the award twice during the 2007 season. Bell earned the honor for the first time last season, as two days from now will mark a calendar year from when she claimed the award in 2015.
“I couldn’t have done it without the help of my teammates and coaches. We had a great week of preparation in getting ready for both teams and it showed for us,” Bell said. “I’m glad to have received this honor and hope to continue to make the Tiger family proud.”
The Tampa, Florida, native earned the award after helping lead the LSU softball team to four wins last week, including opening the conference slate with a series victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in Baton Rouge. LSU is now 23-3 on the year and 2-1 in Southeastern Conference play.
“It was great to see Bianka have such a big weekend to open conference play. She truly set the tone for our team starting right from the first at-bat,” head coach Beth Torina said. “The SEC has so much incredible competition, so it was great for our entire team to start with a series win.”
She helped lead the Tigers to a pair of wins over Longwood last Tuesday and a series-opening win over the sixth-ranked Crimson Tide by hitting .467, with a team-leading 1.000 slugging percentage and .579 on-base percentage.
Bell had a hit in all five games, as four of her seven hits were for extra bases as she led the team with two doubles and two home runs to drive in six RBIs and score seven times.
The pair of doubles came in back-to-back games against the Lancers, going 1-for-2 with two runs scored in the first game, with her RBI double in game two serving as the difference in a 1-0 win for LSU to earn the sweep.
Bell opened the Alabama series with a three-run home run in the first inning, belting a solo shot in the finale on Sunday. She finished the week with two multi-hit outings, two multi-RBI outings and scored at least twice in three games.
On the year, Bell is batting .394 with seven doubles and three home runs, driving in 27 with a .636 slugging percentage and .549 on-base mark. Over the weekend, she became the first player to have 200 RBIs in an LSU career, while claiming the record for most multi-RBI games with 54 to break a record that stood since 2007.
“Bianka is an extremely talented player and we are always proud to call her a Tiger,” Torina said.
LSU takes on Louisiana Tech Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m. in Ruston. The game will be televised live on CST.
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.