Huskers Sweep Big 12 Weekly Awards

The Nebraska softball team swept the Big 12 Conference weekly awards on Monday, as junior right-hander Robin Mackin was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and freshman outfielder Brooke Thomason was selected as the Big 12 Player of the Week.

 

The award was the first of both players’ careers, while Nebraska captured both honors in the same week for only the second time in school history and the first since May 8, 2001.

 

Mackin allowed only one run in two starts last weekend, including nearly recording her second shutout of a top-10 opponent this season. Against 10th-ranked Arizona State on Saturday night, Mackin nearly brought the Sun Devils’ 16-game win streak to a close. She fired a three-hitter and held Arizona State to only one run in a 1-0 loss. The Sun Devils were averaging 9.5 runs per game and ASU had scored at least four runs in 17 straight games before Mackin held them to season-low totals in hits (3) and runs (1), while posting the second-highest strikeout total against ASU this season (6).

 

In her other start of the weekend, Mackin tossed a four-hit shutout against Pacific. Each of the four hits she allowed were infield singles, while she added six strikeouts in only 5.0 innings. On the weekend, Mackin held opposing hitters to a .171 batting average while posting a 1-1 record with a 0.58 ERA. She added 13 strikeouts in 12.0 innings. Offensively, Mackin also contributed, going 5-for-12 (.417 average) with a double, an RBI and two runs scored.

 

Thomason enjoyed an outstanding five games at the Diamond Devil Invitational against a tough schedule that had Nebraska playing three games against ranked teams and two games against a top-10 foe. Thomason hit safely in all five games, including producing one double and three home runs. She batted .563 on the weekend with a 1.188 slugging percentage while driving in six runs.

 

After going 3-for-6 with a double on the first day of the tournament, Thomason had a career game against Pacific on Saturday. She went 3-for-4 with two home runs, two runs scored and five RBIs. Each of those totals were a career high, while she became the first Husker freshman to homer twice in a game since 2006. Thomason then went 3-for-6 in a pair of games at 10th-ranked Arizona State, including a 2-for-3 effort on Sunday when her homer accounted for Nebraska’s lone run. She homered three times in her final three games at the tournament after no Husker freshman had homered more than two times in an entire season since 2006.

 

After playing its first 26 games of the season on the road, Mackin, Thomason and the rest of the Huskers open the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday, with a 3 p.m. doubleheader against South Dakota at Bowlin Stadium.