INDIANAPOLIS – Tiffin and Cedarville both earned Great Midwest Athletic Conference Softball Players of the Week recognition as announced on Monday.
The Dragons and Yellow Jackets have established their programs in the top half of the conference standings as teams vie for postseason bids to Akron, Ohio, and Firestone Stadium for this year’s Great Midwest Championship.
Ohio Dominican stands alone at the top with a perfect 14-0 record in conference games. Hillsdale is second and the Chargers have put together a current six-game win streak under first-year head coach Kyle Gross.
Trevecca Nazarene is in third with 10 league victories followed by Tiffin and Cedarville, respectively, in the top five.
Player of the Week
Brooke Lambert
Tiffin
Infield
Junior
Lancaster, OH (Lancaster HS)
Lambert and the Dragons enjoyed a perfect week with series sweeps over Malone and Walsh at home. In its first year with the league, head coach Jeff Nickerson’s program is poised to earn a high seed in the conference tournament.
The junior impressed in a sample size of four games as she went 11-for-17 at the plate with a .647 batting average. She legged out four extra-base hits, recorded seven RBI, scored five runs and stole two bases.
Lambert ripped three doubles and homered to give the Dragons their second conference softball athlete of the week for the season (Sarah Klein – pitcher).
Tiffin’s starting shortstop was 5-for-5 in the first game against Walsh, including a two-run homer parked to left center that put her team up 3-0 in the second innings. Lambert finished with four RBI and laced two doubles in the following game against Cavaliers pitching.
Lambert was 3-for-4 in the first game against Malone with a double and two more RBI. In game two’s 12-5 Tiffin win, Lambert had another hit, walked and stole a base.
She now has an eight-game hitting streak and 19 extra-base hits on the season. In 110 at-bats, Lambert is now hitting at a .364 clip with a team-leading 25 RBI.
Pitcher of the Week
Morgan Arbogast
Cedarville
Pitcher/First Base
Senior
Troy, OH (Covington HS)
Arbogast racked up strikeouts in bunches as she shouldered a considerable pitching load for the Yellow Jackets during an impressive 6-2 week.
The senior ace was dealing as she sat down 35 hitters in just under 26 innings pitched. She tallied a 4-1 win-loss record in the circle with a 1.64 ERA.
In the past week (since Monday, April 1), Arbogast made five appearances with three starts vs. Walsh and Malone on the road and the series opener vs. Davis & Elkins.
Arbogast went the distance in those three starting nods and she fired a three-hit shutout vs. D&E with nine strikeouts.
Earlier in the week, she fired a season-best 12 strikeouts vs. Walsh, the first time she reached double-digit totals in 2019. Against Malone, she fanned seven and scattered five-hits for another complete-game effort.
Arbogast worked a combined 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to close out the weekend and she struck out seven while yielding just two hits.
This is Arbogast’s second conference pitcher of the week selection for the current spring. She is now 10-6 with a 2.23 ERA in just over 100 innings pitched. Her 98 strikeouts are a league-leading total.