March 24, 2008

• Tincher Selected as National Player of the Week by USA Softball (Read More...)

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Virginia Tech's Angela Tincher and North Carolina's Danielle Spaulding have been selected as the Atlantic Coast Conference Softball Pitcher and Player of the Week, respectively, for the period ending on Sunday, March 23. Each has now earned ACC weekly honors twice during the 2007-08 season.

Tincher, a 2007 first-team All-American and the reigning ACC Pitcher of the Year, was a perfect 4-0 in four appearances for the Hokies last week. In Tech's biggest win of the week against No. 11/12 Houston on Tuesday, the Eagle Rock, Va., senior tossed her league-leading 16th complete game of the season, allowing just three hits and striking out 14. In the first of two games against NC State on Friday, Tincher was even better, picking up the 12th solo no-hitter of her career in a 3-0 win over the Wolfpack. For the week, she pitched 24.2 innings, giving up zero runs and only eight hits, while striking out 58 batters. Now 15-4 this season, she leads the league in ERA, wins, innings pitched and strikeouts.

The Tar Heels' Spaulding, who has both pitched and played first-base this season, hit safely in every game of a North Carolina sweep against Maryland this past weekend and drove in the winning run in both Saturday games. In Saturday's first game, the junior native of Fontana, Calif., knocked in her fourth home run of the season to give the `Heels a lead they would not relinquish. Then in the finale, she drove in two runs with a single in the bottom of the sixth to lead UNC to a dramatic 3-2 victory. Spaulding, who also earned her eighth win of the season on the mound on Friday, hit .444 for the week.

North Carolina, which leads the ACC with a 27-6 overall record this season, will take on Elon and Longwood on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, before hosting a three-game series with Georgia Tech this weekend. Virginia Tech, which now stands at 23-9 and ranks 24th in the nation, will take on the U.S. National Team in an exhibition that will be televised by ESPN2 this Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m., and then travel to College Park, Md., for a weekend series against the Terrapins.