UC Santa Barbara sophomore Shelby Wisdom and Hawai`i senior Kaia Parnaby garnered Big West Softball Field Player and Pitcher of the Week recognition as both led their teams to impressive starts to the 2013 season.
Wisdom Earns Tournament MVP Honors For Gauchos
Sophomore Shelby Wisdom (Elk Grove, Calif./Elk Grove HS), the Most Valuable Player of the Mardi Gras Classic, captured Big West Softball Field Player of the Week honors for her solid performance at the plate.
Wisdom hit safely in all five tournament games – all Gaucho victories – and batted .389 with three runs scored and seven RBI.
She posted three multi-RBI games, including in Thursday's season-opening 6-0 win against Grambling State. Wisdom went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI and scored the game-winning run.
The designated player returned on Friday to drive in two more runs in a 7-1 victory against Wichita State and a single run in a 6-1 triumph over Louisiana-Monroe. Wisdom picked up a hit to start out play in Saturday's 5-0 shutout of Northwestern State and concluded the tournament with a 2-for-3 effort, driving in a pair of runs on her first homer of the year in a 6-3 win against Mississippi Valley State.
Wisdom also excelled in the circle as UC Santa Barbara's ace pitcher. She threw 17.1 innings of scoreless ball, posting a 3-0 record with 20 strikeouts.
Others nominated: Melissa Sechrest (Cal State Fullerton); Mikayla Thielges (Cal State Northridge); Karli Sandoval (Long Beach State); Kayla White (UC Riverside); Sharla Kliebenstein (Hawai`i); Nikki Armagost (Pacific)
Parnaby Named MVP Of Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic
Senior Kaia Parnaby (Bilgola Plateau, NSW, Australia/NBSC Freshwater Senior Campus) tallied three wins and two saves to help Hawai`i go 5-1 at the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic and earn Big West Softball Pitcher of the Week honors.
Parnaby allowed just 13 hits and three walks in 31.2 innings while striking out 39 as the Rainbow Wahine defeated Ole Miss twice, UAB and Saint Mary's while splitting with No. 16 Washington. She blanked opposing teams for 27.1 scoreless innings before giving up a pair of runs against Washington in her sixth appearance of the three-day tourney.
In her first three starts, she twirled three shutouts. In the season opener, a 2-0 win against Ole Miss, the only hit she allowed was an infield single to third base. Parnaby finished the game with 11 strikeouts and faced just one batter over the minimum.
Parnaby fanned the first six batters she faced and finished with eight strikeouts in a three-inning relief appearance against UAB that netted her the save in a 7-2 triumph against UAB.
After tossing a five-hit shutout against Saint Mary's and picking up her second save of the tournament – another three-inning stint in a 5-2 win against Washington, Parnaby again flirted with a no-hitter in a rematch versus Ole Miss. She took the no-hitter into the sixth against the Rebels and ended up yielding just three hits in the 2-0 win.
Parnaby, who now has eight career saves, threw 31.2 of a possible 42 innings for UH during the week.
Others nominated: Jasmine Antunez (Cal State Fullerton); Erin Jones-Wesley (Long Beach State); Alyssa Razo (UC Riverside); Shelby Wisdom (UC Santa Barbara); Nikki Armagost (Pacific)