DePaul University Athletics
Verdun, Brown Selected to BIG EAST Honor Roll
4/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | SOFTBALL
April 18, 2011
CHICAGO - The BIG EAST Conference has taken notice of DePaul's recent softball surge.
Kirsten Verdun and Bree Brown were both named to the league's Honor Roll on Monday, being recognized with two of the top seven performances in the BIG EAST last week.
It's the second time this season a pair of Blue Demons have received accolades in the same week.
On Feb. 21, Verdun was chosen as BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week and Alex Morocco was selected to the Honor Roll.
DePaul (26-11, 10-1 in the BIG EAST) knocked off NCAA tournament contender Illinois State 10-6 last week and also swept a doubleheader (6-2, 7-2) on the road from BIG EAST Championship contender Pittsburgh.
That gave the Blue Demons six wins in a row and nine in their last 10 games. In that span, DePaul has batted .373 as a team and outscored opponents 83-29.
Verdun batted .625 last week with five hits, including a double. The lefty slugger also had four RBIs, scored four runs and walked four times in the three games. She had a .750 slugging percentage and a .750-on-base percentage while also going 2-0 as a starting pitcher.
This was the fourth time Verdun has made the Honor Roll and it was her fifth overall BIG EAST weekly award.
Brown, the 2010 BIG EAST Rookie of the Year, was dominating in the circle. The sophomore from Spring, Texas was 1-0 with two saves and had 16 strikeouts in 8.1 innings---virtually two strikeouts per inning.
The hard-throwing right-hander had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 16-to-1 and an earned-run average of 1.68. During her two saves, Brown had a string of seven consecutive strikeouts. Opponents hit just .241 against her.
This was Brown's first BIG EAST weekly award of the season.
