Shelby Holley Named OVC Softball Player of the Week - WAFF-TV: News, Weather and Sports for Huntsville, AL

Shelby Holley Named OVC Softball Player of the Week

5/7/2012 | Softball

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Jacksonville State freshman Shelby Holley has been named the Ohio Valley Conference's Player of the Week for softball after helping the Gamecocks to a 3-1 record in the final week of the regular season.

Holley, a 6-foot-0 first baseman from Pisgah, Ala., earned her second Player of the Week honor of the season after hitting .600 with three home runs and six RBI over the Gamecocks' four games last week. She went 6-for-11 and homered in each game of JSU's three-game series win over OVC regular season champion UT Martin last weekend.

Holley opened the week with a 3-for-4, two-RBI game at Alabama State, a 20-0 win for the Gamecocks. She then guided the Gamecocks to take two games from the Skyhawks, just their second series loss of the year. Her three-homer weekend led to a 1.267 slugging percentage over the week and gave her 20 home runs on the year, the second-most in a season in JSU history.

She had multiple hits in all four games, including a pair in a 10-2 win over UTM in Sunday's season finale, the Skyhawks' first mercy-rule loss of the season. She moved into the top five in the nation in homers with her OVC-leading 20 and becomes just the second layer in school history to reach the 20-home run mark in a season. She is two shy of Rachel Countryman's record of 22 set in 2004.

Holley and the Gamecocks will be the No. 3 seed in this week's OVC Tournament and will open the double-elimination event on Thursday at 10 a.m. against No. 6 Tennessee Tech. The tournament will be held in Martin, Tenn., and all of JSU's games will be broadcast live on the JSU Radio Network.