McKinnon Honored as Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Co-Pitcher of the Week
4/26/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Louisville, Ky. – Following a monumental week when she tossed the first eight inning no-hitter in school history and won four games in the circle, USC Upstate junior Holly McKinnon has been named the Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Division I Co-Pitcher of the Week.
The Ocala, Fla. native earns her second honor this week as she was named the A-Sun Pitcher of the Week on Monday. She shares the weekly honor with Boston University's Melanie Russell.
"Holly has been an integral part of our season this year," said head coach Chris Hawkins. "She has won well over 20 games and had an outstanding week this past week. She went 4-0 and threw a no-hitter, and it was awesome. It was a real big boost for our team going into the final stretch of our conference season. I could not be more proud of Holly and what she is trying to accomplish here at our school."
McKinnon won all three games for the Spartans last weekend in a sweep of Kennesaw State, highlighted by the program's 27th no-hitter to wrap up the series on Sunday. McKinnon pitched the school's first-ever eight inning no-hitter, also the first of her career, and clinched a spot for Upstate in the A-Sun Tournament. She held a perfect game for 5.1 innings and retired the first 16 batters she faced in the contest. In the Kennesaw State series, McKinnon pitched 19.0 scoreless innings and had 19 strikeouts to go with four hits allowed.
The junior began her week on April 20 with a complete game shutout in a 10-0 win in six innings over South Carolina State. Her first two wins against Kennesaw State came in relief beginning in game one with 4.1 innings without allowing a hit. In game two, McKinnon recorded nine strikeouts in 6.2 innings of relief.
McKinnon amassed a nearly perfect resume in the circle for Upstate, going 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA in four appearances. She compiled two complete games and two shutouts, while giving up just six hits, two walks and struck out 25 batters over 25.0 innings of work. McKinnon held opponents to just a .074 average at the plate.
"To be selected for something like this is a huge honor," added McKinnon. "There are so many girls out there deserving of it every week. I am truly honored. This past week at practice I worked a lot on mechanics, because it is easy to get away from them late in the season. It is easy to relax out there when you have a solid defense behind you. So when I was on the field this weekend I was just having fun and not worrying so much about the outcome."
McKinnon is the first Spartan pitcher since Anna Miller on Feb. 25, 2014 to earn a weekly national award. Miller was also named the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Co-National Player of the Week.
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