Ladines Named Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Pitcher of the Week
5/2/2017 3:31:00 PM | Softball
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kent State senior Ronnie Ladines has been named Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division I National Pitcher of the Week, the NFCA announced Tuesday (May 2) afternoon. This is the third consecutive season the NFCA has chosen one of the Golden Flashes' student-athletes as a national player of the week recipient.
The award adds to a lengthy list of recognition for Ladines following a dominant performance at Buffalo over the weekend, which also includes FastPitchNews.com DI National Player of the Week, CollegeSportsMadness.com Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, MAC East Division Pitcher of the Week and KentStateSports.com Hometown Bank Student-Athlete of the Week.
"Receiving this award is a huge accomplishment that would not have been possible without the backing of my teammates," Ladines said. "The defense made every play behind me and my catcher, Paige McCrary, did a great job calling pitches and caught two great games. The offense really helped me in the perfect game, taking away some of the pressure and also ending it in five innings. It feels great to do my part to help the team sweep a series as we continue to move in the right direction as we get closer to the conference tournament."
Ladines threw a perfect game and a one-hitter in a pair of shutout starts inside the circle. She retired 36 of 37 batters faced and recorded 19 strikeouts over 12 innings. Ladines fanned a career-high 15 batters and allowed just one hit in Friday's 1-0 series-opening win. She came back on Saturday and retired all 15 UB batters that stepped to the plate while striking out four.
At the plate, Ladines blasted a pair of game-winning home runs and led the offense with three home runs, eight RBIs and six runs scored.
Two-time MAC Pitcher of the Year Emma Johnson was named Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Pitcher of the Week on April 28, 2015 after throwing 22.1 scoreless innings, including three shutouts, a no-hitter, a one-hitter and a two-hitter. Last season, junior Holly Speers was named Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Player of the Week after setting a NCAA Division I record by hitting a home run in five consecutive at-bats.
Kent State (24-24, 12-9 MAC) concludes its non-conference slate Wednesday at Ohio State, which can be viewed on BTN Plus and heard on Golden Flashes Radio. The Golden Flashes will then look to extend their MAC-best streak to 14 straight years qualifying for the conference tournament as they host Bowling Green to close out the regular season at the Diamond at Dix this weekend.
LADINES' WEEK AT A GLANCE
4/29 at Buffalo: 7 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 15 K, 0 BB
4/29 at Buffalo: 5 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 4, K, 0 BB
