DALLAS – North Texas’ Mikayla Smith and Florida Atlantic’s Gabby Sacco earned Conference USA Softball weekly honors, presented by Blenders Eyewear. Smith is the Player of the Week, while Sacco garners Pitcher of the Week recognition.
 
Smith tallied a team-high four RBI with a pair of extra-base hits to lead the Mean Green (26-17, 11-7 C-USA) to a series victory over then-first place Charlotte. She recorded an RBI in each of the three games, giving her 21 on the year.
 
Sacco tossed complete-game victories on back-to-back days to help the Owls (29-13, 11-4 C-USA) extend their winning streak to seven games and assume first-place in the C-USA standings with a weekend sweep of UTEP.  
 
Player of the Week – Mikayla Smith, North Texas – Junior – Moore, Okla.
Smith went 2-3 in her first at-bats over the weekend with a solo shot to open the scoring on Friday and an RBI single to put the Mean Green on the board in Saturday’s 3-2 victory. After she drew a two-out walk in the seventh inning on Saturday, Katy Truitt pinch ran for Smith and wound up scoring the game-winning run on McKenzie Wagoner’s walk-off single. In the series finale, Smith helped secure a 6-2 victory with a two-run double that sparked a four-run fifth inning.
 
Pitcher of the Week – Gabby Sacco, Florida Atlantic – Sophomore – Orlando, Fla.
Sacco improved to 17-3 on the year and 8-0 in C-USA play with complete-game victories over UTEP on Saturday and Sunday. She scattered five hits with three strikeouts and no walks in seven innings of work on Saturday and followed it up with just one run on three hits through seven frames in the series finale. Sacco is 4-0 with a 0.45 ERA over her last four starts, dropping her ERA to 1.28 on the year and 0.86 in league play.
 
2023 C-USA Players of the Week
F13      Kassidy Krupit, Charlotte
F20      Taylor Sanders, WKU
F27      Bailey Vannoy, Charlotte
M6       Laura Mealer, Middle Tennessee
M13     Shelby Echols, Middle Tennessee
M20     Kalei Christensen, North Texas
M27     Taylor Sanders, WKU
A3        Zoey Jones, Florida Atlantic
A10      Sierra Frazier, UAB
A17      Mikayla Smith, North Texas
 
2023 C-USA Pitchers of the Week
F13      Ashley Peters, North Texas
F20      Lena Elkins, Charlotte
F27      Olivia Valbak, UAB
M6       Gabby Sacco, Florida Atlantic
M13     McKenzie Wagoner, North Texas
M20     Kamryn Carcich, Middle Tennessee
M27     Sam Gress, Charlotte
A3        Mary Martinez, LA Tech
A10      Gabby Sacco, Florida Atlantic
A17      Gabby Sacco, Florida Atlantic