Paisley Pitcher-Of-The-Week For Seventh Time
May 10, 2010 | Softball
May 10, 2010
IRVING, Texas – After guiding the East Carolina softball team to its first Conference USA regular season title, junior Toni Paisley was named the Conference USA Pitcher-of-the-Week according to an announcement by league officials Monday. The weekly honor is the 15th of Paisley’s career and seventh this season. The seven selections in 2010 tie her total from a season ago and Southern Miss’ Courtney Blades (2000) for the most single-season C-USA Pitcher-of-the-Week awards. Paisley’s 15 career honors are one short of Houston pitcher Angel Shamblin (2005-08) and DePaul hurler Lindsay Chouinard (2000-03) for the most selections for a C-USA softball player.
Paisley led the Pirates to a 5-0 week with sweeps of Elon and Memphis. She went 3-0 without allowing a run and struck out 30 batters. The three shutouts gave her a nation-best 19 this season.
After blanking Memphis in the three weekend games, East Carolina became the first team in Conference USA history to shut out opponents in three series in one season. UCF, Southern Miss and the Tigers all did not score against the Pirate pitching staff. Paisley also helped ECU extend its shutout streak to a school-record eight games as no opponent has crossed home in the month of May.
Paisley began her week shutting out Elon Thursday on three hits and a walk. She struck out 12 in the contest to take her season total over 300. She is just the second pitcher in ECU history to pass the 300-strikeout plateau.
Against Memphis Saturday, the Lakewood, Calif., native scattered four hits and three walks. She also struck out 12, marking the sixth time she has fanned at least 10 batters in a league game. In the Sunday series finale, she allowed five hits and a walk in helping the Pirates complete the series sweep. She fanned six in the contest and raising her career total to 858, tying her with Chouinard for third on the all-time C-USA list. With the pair of blankings against Memphis, Paisley’s past 12 Conference USA victories have all been shutouts.
The Pirates (39-16, 16-5 C-USA) return to action Thursday in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament. ECU, the No. 1 seed, will play eighth-seeded Southern Miss (25-27, 7-17 C-USA) at 5:30 p.m. ET at the Cougar Softball Stadium in Houston, Texas. Two weekends ago, the Pirates swept the Golden Eagles by 4-0, 1-0 and 5-0 scores.
