Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball's Samantha Carter Named MVC Player of the Week
04/11/2005 | 12:00:00 | Softball
April 11, 2005
By Lou Antoine
SIUSalukis.com
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - For the third straight week, a Saluki softball player collected one of the MVC weekly honors, when Samantha Carter was named MVC Player of the Week for the first time in her career.
"I believe Samantha can play with any second baseman in the league. I'm happy for her that her offense has really come on lately and she won this award. She's been working hard on her offense and it has paid off," said Kerri Blaylock, SIU head coach.
Carter, a junior from St. Louis (Hazelwood East), hit .455 (5-for-11) to lead the Salukis to a 4-1 record last week. She started three games and played in all five, registering a double, her first home run of the year, two RBI, four runs scored and nine total bases. Carter had a .818 slugging and .455 on base percentage for the week. She led SIU with four runs, was second in total bases and slugging percentage and third in hits.
In three MVC games, Carter hit .500 (4-for-8) with a double, home run and two RBI against Wichita State, leading SIU to a 2-1 series win. She went 2-for-4 with two RBI and drove in and scored the winning run with her two-run homer in SIU's 7-4 win over Wichita State to open the series. Carter also went 2-for-4, with a double and two runs scored, including the game-winning run in SIU's 2-1 win over Wichita State in the series finale.
Her successful league play left her hitting .381 (8-for-21) in MVC play (2nd at SIU) with a .619 slugging percentage, which would be third in the MVC rankings with three more at bats. She has raised her overall average 62 points to .198 since Valley play began.
The honor for Carter marks the second time this season a Saluki has won one of the awards for three straight weeks.
