Nikki Grupp nabs first-ever SoCon Player of the Week honor

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Feb. 25, 2019) – For the second consecutive week, an ETSU softball player has taken home Southern Conference hardware. This time it was Nikki Grupp (Jacksonville, Fla.) who captured SoCon Player of the Week for games played from Feb. 18-24. The award was announced this afternoon by the league office and is the first SoCon Player of the Week honor for Grupp in her collegiate career. Grupp joins Kelly Schmidt (Norcross, Ga.) as the two award winners for the Bucs this season. 

Grupp shined for the Blue & Gold in Boiling Springs, N.C., posting a .471 batting average in 17 plate appearances. The junior infielder also finished the week with an on-base percentage of .550 and a slugging percentage of 1.118, tallying five extra-base hits on the weekend. Grupp also tallied at least one hit in each of the five games and is currently riding an eight-game hitting streak. 

After a 1-for-4 start and three RBIs in the opening game, Grupp laced a home run in back-to-back games against Gardner-Webb and St. Francis, accumulating a 5-for-7 performance in those two games with two home runs, two doubles, seven RBIs and eight runs scored. The Florida native finished 2-of-6 in the last two games of the GWU Softball Tournament with one home run and two runs scored. 

Grupp finished the weekend with 11 runs batted in and proved to be a tough out at the plate, drawing three walks and not striking out once in 20 plate appearances. She also got the job done from the field, picking up nine assists and three putouts without any errors in the field. 

Grupp’s five dingers through three weeks of play leads all conference players. She also leads the conference in runs batted in (21) and is second in runs scored (17) and total bases (34). 

Grupp and the Bucs (8-4-2) will return to action this Friday, March 1 when they travel to Nashville, Tenn., to take part in the TSU Winter Warm Up hosted by Tennessee State. 

Keeping up with the Bucs
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