INDIANAPOLIS – All eight playoff seeds were locked up as the final regular season Great Midwest Athletic Conference Softball Players of the Week awards were announced on Tuesday evening.
Cedarville secured the top seed for the Great Midwest Championship that will start on Thursday from the Athletes in Action Sports Complex in Xenia, Ohio.
Ohio Dominican and Findlay battled on Sunday with a chance to at least earn a share of the regular-season title, but a series split pushed the Yellow Jackets to the top while idle. Cedarville will enter the postseason as the No. 1 seed for the second straight season.
Hillsdale and Trevecca also finished in the middle of the standings, but as the regular season has indicated, this year’s tournament is arguably the most open it has ever been with membership expansion and two additional teams in the bracket.
On Saturday, the final four teams in the field had clinched, including defending conference tourney champion Kentucky Wesleyan. Lake Erie and Davis & Elkins finished the regular season strong to make the postseason.
The championship banquet will start tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m. ET and the announcement of the annual all-conference team will be released with eight of the 13 teams in attendance.
Player of the Week
Taylor Phillips
Lake Erie
Outfield
Freshman
Ontario, CA (John F. Ross HS)
Just a rookie, Phillips helped give the Storm plenty of reason to celebrate as Lake Erie’s program made the conference tournament field in its first attempt as a new Great Midwest institution.
Phillips sprinkled in a little of everything during an impressive week in which she hit .538 in six conference games against the likes of Malone, Alderson Broaddus and Davis & Elkins.
She displayed extra-base pop with three doubles and a homer, run scoring ability with nine to lead all players in the past week and patience to get on base with four walks and reaching on two hit-by-pitch sequences.
Phillips was a thorn in the side of Malone’s pitching staff as she went a perfect 3-for-3 in game one to start Monday’s doubleheader. The freshman outfielder was a triple shy of the cycle and with two RBI and two runs scored.
She only had one official at-bat in the next contest vs. the Pioneers, but made it count by lacing a two-run double.
Patience at the plate paid off as she drew four walks against Alderson Broaddus and crossed home plate four times. She had a hit in each game against conference tourney-qualifying Davis & Elkins as the Storm split; Phillips doubled and scored in the regular-season finale.
LEC enters the playoffs as winners in six of its last seven. In her first year at the collegiate level, Phillips upped her batting average to .361 in 27 games started this spring. She has seven doubles and has hit three home runs.
Pitcher of the Week
Allie Lapallo
Davis & Elkins
RHP
Senior
North Chesterfield, VA (Monacan HS)
To win the arms race in the postseason, teams need to rely on their ace to shoulder a considerable burden and Lapallo has as much experience as anyone going into the Great Midwest Championship again.
Lapallo is rounding into unhittable form at the right time for the Senators as she logged 14 scoreless innings across two starts last week.
Lapallo was 2-0 while striking out nine with a pair of complete-game efforts against Ohio Valley and Lake Erie. She only gave up five hits and walked four as Davis & Elkins won a pair of closely-contested games with the senior in the circle.
Lapallo dealt a one-hitter against Ohio Valley and fanned four while she recorded five strikeouts against Lake Erie in her final start of the regular season.
This represents the sixth career conference weekly pitching honor for Lapallo, who continues to climb up the career record books in Great Midwest history. She is third in ERA (2.39), second in wins (52), fifth in opponent batting average (.246), second in complete games (58) and shutouts (16) and fourth in appearances (99).
Lapallo will carry a 10-7 record into the conference tournament with a 2.81 ERA in 19 appearances this spring. She has struck out 86 in almost 110 innings of work.