TEMPE ? Arizona State University softball center fielder Jennifer Soria has been honored as the Pac-12 Player of the Week after an All-World weekend on the road in the Bay Area, the conference announced on Monday.
The senior simply put the team on her back in the three-game series against the Cal Golden Bears, willing the Sun Devils to their first Pac-12 series win of the season.
Soria went 7-for-13 on the weekend with a whopping four home runs, slugging an otherworldly 1.462 over the course of three games. She knocked a team-leading six RBIs and scored seven runs in the series, four more than any other player on the roster and nearly a third of the total 22 runs scored by the Sun Devils overall.
.@jennsoria5 for @asusoftball this weekend in four emojis: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (One for each dinger!) #Pac12SBhttps://t.co/pcKrhIMmLq
? Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) April 4, 2016
The senior went 3-for-5 in the opener with two home runs, including a solo dinger in the ninth inning that would prove to be the game winner. She added another solo home run Saturday before closing the weekend with a 3-for-4 effort, including her fourth home run and three RBIs in the rubber match of the series.
Her four home runs were especially notable as Cal pitchers had given up just 18 total homers all season entering the weekend (28 games, .64 per game), meaning Soria had more than a fifth of that total in three games alone (1.33 per game).
Final weekend stat line for @jennsoria5? 7-for-13, 4 homers, 6 RBIs, 7 runs. Oh, and she ended the game like this:https://t.co/vEd0yViiJg
? Sun Devil Softball (@ASUSoftball) April 3, 2016
On the year Soria is now batting .368 ? fourth on the team ? and is tied for the team lead with 10 home runs (third in the conference) after having just eight in her career coming into 2016. She leads the team with 37 runs scored, eight more than any other Sun Devil and fourth in the Pac-12.
The award marks the first time in Soria’s career being honored as the Pac-12 Player of the Week and she is the second Sun Devil to do so this season after Nikki Girard earned the accolade earlier this season.
The Sun Devils return home this weekend for a pivotal early season Pac-12 clash against No. 11 Washington, starting Friday, April 8 at 5 p.m. PT.