Childers Sweeps Up A-Sun Pitcher Of The Week Honors
4/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 6, 2009
Spartanburg, S.C. - USC Upstate standout pitcher Morgan Childers has been named the A-Sun Pitcher of the Week after leading the Spartans to four wins in four games last week, including a sweep of A-Sun rival North Florida Saturday.
Childers (Kings Mountain, N.C.), who was named the 2008 A-Sun Pitcher of the Year and was the league's preseason pitcher of the year entering this season, earned her second weekly honor from the league this season and the third of her career. She finished the week with a 4-0 record, winning all four games the Spartans played. She started three games and tallied 24 strikeouts in 23 innings of work. She finished with a 0.61 ERA for the week and improved her overall record to 16-6 on the year.
Childers began the week starting the first game of the doubleheader at Western Carolina last Wednesday. She tossed four innings before leaving with a 7-0 lead in the 9-2 win over the Catamounts. She started game two and went the distance, tossing eight innings in the 3-2 nail biter in extra innings. She struck out 13 batters on the day and allowed just two runs on eight hits.
Childers was dominant in the circle Saturday in the sweep of North Florida. She started game one of the doubleheader and went the distance, scattering two hits and striking out seven to claim the 1-0 win over the Ospreys. With the score tied at 1-1 in the fourth inning of game two, Childers relieved Spartan starter Amber Hamilton. She tossed four innings of relief to earn the 2-1 win over UNF. She finished the game with four strikeouts and allowed just two hits. For the day, she pitched 11 innings with two wins and 11 strikeouts to earn both victories over UNF standout pitcher Devyn Findley. The two were picked as preseason all-conference selections.
Childers has made quite a mark on the softball program at Upstate in her short stay in the program. As a freshman, she was named the A-Sun Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the year, marking the first time in conference history that a player had earned both honors in the same season. She was also a first team all-conference selection, an all-freshman pick, and a second team all-region selection. She broke Upstate's single-season strikeouts record with 258 K's. This season, she has already thrown the second no-hitter of her career and broke the school's all-time strikeouts record. She now has 455 career strikeouts, 75 more than the previous record of 380.
Childers and the Spartans hit the road Tuesday to take on Charleston Southern in Charleston before returning home for a pair of key A-Sun doubleheaders Friday and Saturday against Belmont and Lipscomb.
