Softball
The Bulls swept the MAC Softball Player of the Week awards due to their outstanding performance at the Florida International Invitational.
Sophomore Stacey Evans was named Pitcher of the Week, winning all of the three games the Bulls played over the weekend. She allowed just one earned run in 21 innings, giving her an outstanding 0.33 Earned Run Average. She also had 26 strikeouts, with a high of 11 against Tennessee. Evans allowed just 18 hits over the weekend.
Junior Breanne Nasti received the Player of the Week award. Nasti went 9 for 17 (.529) with one double, four runs batted in and four runs scored. She was also perfect from the field with six putouts and one assist in three games.
Buffalo travels to Hawaii later this week to participate in the Malihini Invitational from Thursday to Sunday. They will be at the San Jose Invitational March 14 and 15.
For the second straight week, Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe of the Bulls basketball team was named the Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week.
McMeeken-Ruscoe contributed heavily in the two wins UB picked up last week against Akron and Miami (Ohio). She averaged 21.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.5 steals in the two victories while playing 39 minutes in each game.
McMeeken-Ruscoe has been a major factor in Buffalo's recent resurgence, in which they have won six consecutive games heading into the showdown with Kent State Tuesday night.
Lisa Wheat, an outfielder on the UB softball team, recently made an incredible comeback to her team three days before the one-year anniversary of a tragic automobile accident she was involved in last year.
Wheat's car collided head-on with a pickup truck when she was home on her first break from UB last December in Olympia, Wash. She had to spend four weeks in the hospital, with five operations that placed titanium rods into her shattered right arm and leg.
Although doctors did not believe she would be able to walk in less than a year and a half, Wheat was able to pinch a hit this past weekend for the Bulls in the Florida International Invitation, in which UB participated.
"Almost losing a teammate has given our players a new appreciation for life," said softball head coach Marie Curran. "They have an understanding that softball is a game; it's not something we have to do. We do it because we want to and because we love it."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
