Johnson Named NFCA National Pitcher of the Week
4/28/2015 4:31:00 PM | Softball
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Kent State senior Emma Johnson added to an impressive list of awards and accomplishments by being named Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division I National Pitcher of the Week, the NFCA announced Tuesday (April 28) afternoon.
"This is a great and humbling honor," said Johnson, who earned her fifth Mid-American Conference East Division Pitcher of the Week honor of the season earlier in the day. "My rise ball was really working this past weekend, and it is great to be able to do my part to help the team win. It was a great overall weekend for the team and I feel that we are moving in the right direction as we get closer to the MAC Tournament."
Johnson turned in the most dominant weekend of her impressive collegiate career by throwing 22.1 scoreless innings, including three shutouts, a no-hitter, a one-hitter and a two-hitter, to help Kent State move into a tie for first place in the MAC standings heading into the final weekend of the regular season. The senior hurler extended her scoreless innings streak to 30 while holding opposing batters to a .044 batting average, which included not allowing a hit over the first 13 innings of the weekend.
The Groveport, Ohio native started the weekend by fanning 13 batters and having a full count walk to leadoff the sixth inning being the only thing that prevented her from throwing a perfect game in the opener at Bowling Green on Friday. It was the third no-hitter of Johnson's collegiate career, but the first one that went all seven innings. Her two previous no-hit bids came in games in which the Flashes run-ruled the opponent in just five innings. She then retired all four batters she faced after entering with two outs in the bottom of the sixth of Game 2 to earn her second save of the season.
Johnson added nine strikeouts to move into second on Kent State's career strikeouts list at Toledo on Saturday. The Rockets finally collected the first hit of the weekend off Johnson with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning and finished the game with two hits. On Sunday, a bloop single to leadoff the bottom of the fourth inning is all that stood between Johnson and her second no-hitter of the weekend. She struck out five batters in the game.
A three-time all-conference selection, Johnson (19-5) has been among the country's top pitchers this season as the ace of a pitching staff that has the nation's third-lowest ERA (1.56). Individually, Johnson is among the national leaders with 10 shutouts (3rd), 10.7 strikeouts per seven innings (5th), a 0.89 ERA (5th), 3.46 hits allowed per seven innings (6th) and 253 strikeouts (10th).
"This is a great honor and accomplishment for Emma," said Kent State head coach Karen Linder. "I am so proud of all that she has achieved this season and am happy that she is being recognized for her efforts. She has been dominating this year and this last weekend, she was exceptional."
Kent State (35-11, 13-4 MAC) has already achieved the third-winningest season in program history and has the opportunity to capture the MAC regular season title and top seed in next week's MAC Tournament when it hosts Western Michigan and Northern Illinois for two games each this weekend at the Diamond at Dix.
