PORTLAND, Ore. – After putting together a nearly flawless weekend at the plate, Montana State University Billings sophomore third baseman Marin Penney was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Softball Player of the Week announced by the conference office on Monday.
 
Penney went 8-for-11 at the plate (.727) and reached base in 12 of 16 plate appearances (.750) to help the Yellowjackets take 3 of 4 games from visiting Western Oregon University at Avitus Group Stadium. "Marin had a phenomenal weekend at the plate," said MSUB head coach Lisa McKinney. "She was calm and worked her plan in each of her at-bats. We worked on executing at the plate this past week at practice, and it was awesome to see her execute in games what we had practiced."
 
Penney's most important plate appearance of the weekend resulted in an out, when she lofted a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to right field with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning that broke a 4-4 tie and gave MSUB a 2-1 lead in the series. The productive fly out – which required a tough catch from WOU rightfielder Aleya Turner as it almost carried over her head – snapped a streak of eight consecutive plate appearances reaching base, as Penney had been 7-for-7 with a walk up to that point.
 
Penney hit her fourth home run of the series in Game 1, lifting a solo shot over the fence in center field. She also had three doubles, four RBIs, and scored three runs over the weekend. Penney posted a slugging percentage of 1.273 and struck out zero times in her 16 plate appearances.
 
Penney nearly had a second home run, when her towering fly ball to right field in the fifth inning of Game 3 hit the yellow marker on the top of the fence and bounced back into play. Penney was robbed of what would have been another base hit in the sixth inning of Game 4, as it took a sliding snag by WOU third baseman Kiley Lynn to prevent her hard line drive from getting through to left field. She also drew a crucial walk during MSUB's six-run seventh inning in the series finale, working a full count with two outs and extending the inning to set up Taylor Anderson's walk-off single.
 
Seeing 67 pitches during the series, Penney averaged 4.2 pitches per at-bat as her patient approach paid off. She worked five 3-ball counts and was behind in the count when she put the ball in play only twice throughout the week.
 
Penney's big week upped her season batting average to .318, and she is now reaching base at a clip of .395 and slugging .606. Defensively, Penney leads all third basemen in the GNAC and ranks fourth overall with 50 assists, while holding a .957 fielding percentage with just three errors in 70 total chances.
 
This is the sophomore's first-career GNAC Player of the Week honor and the second of the season for the Yellowjackets after Hailee Gregerson won the award on March 28.
 
MSUB (9-19, 5-7 GNAC) is next in action on April 24-25 with a four-game home series against Saint Martin's University. The Yellowjackets are off this week, and sit in a tie for fourth place in the GNAC standings with Western Oregon.