ROSEMONT, Ill. – Penn State softball senior first baseman Lexie Black brought home the first Big Ten Player of the Week accolade of her career, the league office announced on Monday.
Black is coming off one of the most dominant weeks of her 2023 campaign, as the Omaha, Nebraska, native led the Nittany Lions to three wins in four contests highlighted by a series victory on the road at Maryland. She finished the week hitting .500 with a 5-for-10 mark at the plate, sending a trio of homers over the wall in addition to seven RBI. Black took 14 total bases across four games played, finishing with an astronomical slugging percentage of 1.400.
She opened the week with a 1-for-1 performance in the box against Bucknell, cranking her first homer of the week to drive in a trio of runs against the Bison. In the series opener against Maryland, Black went 2-for-4 in PSU's extra-inning 3-2 win, launching a pair of homers that drove in all three Nittany Lion runs. Her blast in the top of the eighth inning propelled the Nittany Lions to their third extra-inning victory in as many opportunities. Additionally, she notched an RBI single through the right side in the weekend finale that brought the tying run home in PSU's series-clinching 2-1 win.
Boasting the best individual season of her collegiate career to date, Black has seen a significant uptick in every major statistical category during the 2023 campaign. The veteran infielder leads the Blue & White in home runs (eight), doubles (14), drawn walks (17), RBI (30), total bases (81) and slugging percentage (.692). Her OPS of 1.120 leads all Nittany Lions and ranks seventh in the Big Ten, while her batting average of .333 ranks second at PSU and 21st in the league.
Black brought home the first Big Ten Player of the Week honor for the Nittany Lions in the 2023 campaign and the fourth overall weekly accolade for the Blue & White this year. She became the first Penn State softball player to bring home the award since Ally Kurland did so on April 4 of last year, becoming just the second Nittany Lion to haul in the accolade since 2016. Black joins fifth-year pitcher and two-time B1G Pitcher of the Week (Feb. 20 and March 6) Bailey Parshall, as well as freshman pitcher and Freshman of the Week (Feb. 20) recipient Paige Maynard as the program's Big Ten weekly award designees this year.
As a team, the Nittany Lions have seen continued success as Big Ten Conference play has worn on. The Blue & White are fresh off one of their most competitive series of the 2023 season, taking two-of-three games off the Maryland Terrapins on the road in College Park last week. PSU currently maintains a strong 26-14 overall record in addition to a 7-10 mark in B1G action. Penn State has won five of its past six league games and six of its last seven overall dating to a weekend sweep of Rutgers on April 14-16.
Black and the Nittany Lions will return to Big Ten action in their penultimate weekend series of the 2023 season, as Penn State welcomes the Illinois Fighting Illini to Beard Field and Nittany Lion Softball Park for a three-game stretch. The series begins on Friday, April 28, with a 5 p.m. first pitch on B1G+.
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