Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo’s Hannah Hackney and Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Sarah Norton are the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Softball Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, the league announced Tuesday.
 
Hackney claims Player of the Week honors for the first time this season after leading the ThunderWolves to a season-opening 3-0 record last week. The senior paced her squad with seven hits on 10 at-bats and eight RBI. She struck out just once and collected 10 bases, one home run and a .700 batting average on the weekend. Hackney also stole two bases in the Thunderwolves’ three-game series at Western New Mexico.
 
CSU Pueblo is off this weekend but returns to action Saturday, Feb. 26, for a doubleheader at home against Colorado School of Mines. Following the doubleheader on Saturday, the ThunderWolves and the Orediggers will wrap their three-game series on Sunday.  
 
Norton nabs her second Pitcher of the Week honor of the season after making appearances in all five of the Roadrunners’ games over the weekend at the Desert Stinger Tournament in Tucson, Ariz. She went 2-1 in the circle and registered one save to boost MSU Denver to a 3-2 record at the tournament. Through her five appearances, she put in 20 innings of work and doled out 17 strikeouts while allowing nine runs.
 
MSU Denver returns home this weekend with a pair of doubleheaders. First up for the Roadrunners are two games against St. Mary’s Saturday, Feb. 19, beginning at noon MT. The following day, MSU Denver takes on St. Edward’s starting at 11 a.m.
 
Softball Player of the Week: Hannah Hackney, CSU Pueblo – Sr. – C – Erie, Colo.
Hackney opened the 2022 campaign on a high note and pushed CSU Pueblo to a 3-0 record last weekend at Western New Mexico. Hackney posted a .700 batting average after going 7-for-10 at the plate with one home run, 10 total bases and three runs scored. She earned a 1.000 slugging percentage and a .692 on-base percentage. The senior also went a perfect 2-for-2 in stolen bases and had a clean sheet defensively with 22 putouts.
 
Softball Pitcher of the Week: Sarah Norton, MSU Denver – So. – RHP – Glendale, Ariz.
Against high-level competition at the Desert Stinger Tournament, Norton stepped things up with appearances in all five of the Roadrunners’ games while recording a 2-1 pitching record with one save and a 3.15 earned-run average. Norton had complete games in both of her starts, including a win over Central Washington in which she allowed two runs on eight hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Against Northwest Nazarene, a team that received votes in the preseason poll, she pitched a complete-game six-hitter with eight strikeouts and finished with six innings of three-hit shutout ball. She earned a save against Chico State -- the preseason CCAA favorite -- with two scoreless innings of work and finished the tournament with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief to get the win against Western Washington (the GNAC co-favorite with Northwest Nazarene), another team that received preseason Top-25 votes.