MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Sunshine State Conference announced the weekly award winners of its Player of the Week honors on Monday afternoon for the week ending on March 6. Adam Frank (Baseball Player of the Week) and Ashley Connor (Softball Pitcher of the Week) were the Nova Southeastern Sharks recognized. Sunshine State Conference Athletes of the Week are chosen from a pool of nominees for their performances during the week of February 28 – March 6.
Frank recorded hits in all four games last week for the No. 4 Nova Southeastern Sharks, improving his hitting streak to 11 games. The junior dominated in the series against Davenport, going 7-10, driving in 11 and clubbing three home runs – a pair of which came in the series opener – to power NSU to a 16-0 start. The junior set new season-highs across the board against Davenport, tallying new single-game bests in hits (3), home runs (2), runs scored (3), and runs batted in (5). He had both the team’s first multi-homer game and the first grand slam of the 2022 season. Frank currently leads the club in batting average (0.429) and slugging percentage (0.786), is second in home runs (4), second in OPS (1.267), and third in RBIs (18). Across the conference, Frank ranks tied for second in average, third in slugging, and tied for sixth in home runs.
Fourth-ranked NSU Baseball has gotten off to the best start in program history, sitting at 16-0 on the 2022 campaign. The Sharks will face off with American International on Tuesday, before resuming Sunshine State Conference action with arguably the most highly-anticipated series of the Division II baseball season when they take on second-ranked Tampa beginning on Friday, all from the NSU Baseball Complex.
Just a freshman, Connor proved to be on another level this past week as NSU posted a perfect 7-0 record that included a road sweep at No. 11 Tampa. Over the course of six appearances in the circle, the Jacksonville native posted a 5-0 record to go along with her first career save. She held the opposition off the scoreboard in five of her six outings, finishing with week with a combined ERA of 1.24 over 22.2 innings of work. In the Tampa series alone, Connor tossed 10 scoreless innings, picking up the win in relief in the opener before throwing a perfect seventh to secure the save in game two. Her most impressive outing, though, was in the sweep-clinching victory when she allowed just three singles and a walk en route to a complete-game shutout. The series victory marked the program’s first over a ranked opponent since winning 2-of-3 over then-No. 8 Saint Leo back in March of 2017.
Sharks Softball, currently riding a seven-game winning streak, travels to compete in the Spring Games from March 11-12 in Winter Haven, Fla.
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