Ruthrauff and Booth receive awards from Big East
By JUSTIN SCHUVER
Sports Writer
When you go 6-0 against your conference in a week, people are going to notice.
That was the case for the Irish (20-11, 6-0 Big East) as freshman designated player Meagan Ruthrauff and classmate Heather Booth earned weekly awards from the Big East conference for helping the Irish to the only undefeated record in the conference.
Ruthrauff was named co-player of the week along with Boston College's Erin Mackey, and Booth earned co-pitcher of the week honors along with Kim Ryan of Boston College.
For the week of April 6-13, Ruthrauff hit .438 with two doubles, two home runs, and six RBI. She factored in game one of the Irish's doubleheader sweep of St. John's on Friday, when she belted a three-run home run to provide some insurance.
Booth had two one-hit game pitching gems last week, one against Pittsburgh and one against Seton Hall. She carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning on Sunday against Seton Hall, but gave up a heartbreaking two-out hit to ruin her chances.
Booth finished last week 3-0 with 19 strikeouts in 19.1 innings pitched. Her 0.36 conference ERA is first overall.
Booth, Ruthrauff and the rest of the Irish travel to Rhode Island to take on Providence Tuesday in a make-up doubleheader of a series that was rained out on April 5.
The Irish were scheduled to face powerhouse Nebraska Tuesday, but that doubleheader had to be cancelled to allow the Irish to fulfill conference obligations.
The Friars (11-13, 1-7 Big East) are coming off a split doubleheader with conference foe Rutgers at home. Providence lost the first game 5-2, but came back to shut out the Scarlet Knights 2-0 in game two, picking up their first conference win for the year in the process.
Providence is led offensively by freshman Elena Romero, who leads the team with a .362 batting average and 14 RBI. Junior Cori Van Dusen leads the team in home runs with just three; as a team, the Friars have only hit seven long balls all year.
Van Dusen not only leads the team in offensive categories, but also is part of the Friars' pitching rotation along with senior Melissa Peterson.
Peterson is 5-1 on the year with a 3.57 ERA, and was the pitcher of record in her team's 2-0 shutout of Rutgers. Van Dusen has an ERA of 3.17, but has not gotten as much offensive support as Peterson in compiling a 4-4 record in 12 appearances.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, April 15, 2003
