NEW HAVEN, Conn. - - The Wilmington University softball team got off to a fast start in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference portion of its schedule, winning a doubleheader against Goldey-Beacom last Tuesday much in part of the arm of junior right-handed pitcher Katie Warrington.
Warrington (Townsend, Del. / Red Lion Christian Academy) threw a five-inning complete game victory over the Lightning in the first game of the double-header, tying a season-high with nine strikeouts at the time while not issuing a walk. She was named the CACC Pitcher of the Week for her efforts, announced by the conference office on Tuesday.
On the other diamond, baseball senior Mike Godwin was also honored by the CACC this week, earning CACC Honorable Mention after throwing seven shutout innings while only allowing a broken-bat single in the fourth. He struck out six along the way to pick up his first win of the year, defeating Philadelphia, 3-0 in the opening round of the Bill Giles Classic last Thursday.
Godwin (Hockessin, Del. / A.I. DuPont) faced 23 out of a possible 21 hitters over the seven innings of work and led his team back to the championship of the Bill Giles Classic held at the Philadelphia Phillies Citizens Bank Park. He is now 1-1 on the season and lowered his earned run average to 3.71 in three starts.
The only real danger Warrington faced came in the bottom of the first inning against Goldey-Beacom. The leadoff batter reached on a fielding error and the Warrington allowed two singles to load the bases with one out. But she buckled down and got back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.
The junior only allowed two base runners the rest of the game, as she sat the Lightning down in order in the third and the fifth to move to 5-6 on the year at the time.
It is the first weekly award for the Wildcats softball team this season and the first weekly award since Heather Karasek (Pitcher) and Lauren Dzymanski (Player) swept the conference Players of the Week awards on April 25, 2011.
This is the fourth time of Warrington's career that she has been named the CACC Pitcher of the Week, as she won the award in three consecutive weeks last season. She earned Pitcher of the Week on March 14 and March 28, while being named CACC Co-Pitcher of the Week on March 21.
Holy Family's Danielle McDevitt batted 12-for-19 for a .632 batting average last week to earn CACC's Player of the Week honors. Caldwell's Briana Gaspich batted .480 over eight games last week while adding nine RBI and seven runs scored to be named this week's CACC Rookie of the Week.
Shortly after being named the CACC Pitcher of the Week for last week's performance, Warrington went out and had an even bigger game on Tuesday against Holy Family. She threw a no-hitter and recorded a season high 11 strikeouts to lead the Wildcats to a 2-0 win in the first game of the doubleheader. She is now 6-6 on the year and has a measly 1.08 earned run average with 94 strikeouts on the year.
The Wildcats took both games of the doubleheader over Holy Family, scoring three runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh to overcome the Tigers 4-0 lead for the walk-off victory. Wilmington is now 12-15 overall and 4-0 in the CACC. They will square off against Dominican and Caldwell in a pair of doubleheaders this weekend in more conference action.