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Western Carolina fifth-year infielder Bailey Huneycutt was named the Southern Conference Player of the Week as the league announced its weekly softball awards on Monday afternoon.

Huneycutt wins the award for the third time in her WCU career and the first time this season. Additionally, she is the third Catamount to win a weekly honor in 2023, joining Brooklynn Brewington who was the Player of the Week on March 13, and Tessa Juett, the league’s Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 13.

Selections are made by the conference office from nominations submitted by the sports information or media relations personnel at each league institution.

The Oakboro native hit .533 in five games last week. She tallied eight hits and scored seven runs. In WCU’s doubleheader split against Radford on March 29, Huneycutt finished 3-for-7 with three runs scored including a solo home run. In the process, she became the program leader with 111 runs scored in her career, besting the previous mark of 110. She also tallied a pair of singles.

Huneycutt played an integral role in WCU’s doubleheader sweep of preseason league favorite Samford on Saturday. In WCU’s 7-5 victory in game one, she was 2-for-2 with three runs scored and an RBI which came on a sacrifice fly. Huneycutt had a monster second game, driving in all four runs in WCU’s 4-1 victory. Her first inning double gave the Catamounts a 1-0 lead and after Samford tied the game in the fourth inning, she belted a three-run home run to center field for the game’s deciding runs.

On Sunday, Huneycutt closed out the series with a 1-for-3 afternoon, tallying one of WCU’s seven hits in the ballgame.