Highland's Vanessa Hartzell named Northern Athletics Conference Softball Pitcher of the Week

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AURORA, IL (05/07/2013)(readMedia)-- Aurora University softball freshman pitcher Vanessa Hartzell (Highland, Ind./Nishop Noll H.S.) was named the Northern Athletics Conference Softball Pitcher of the Week for the week ending May 5, 2013.

Hartzell went 4-1 in the circle for the Spartans with the lone loss being 1-0 in the 2013 NAC Tournament Championship game. She had four complete-game victories including a shutout of Concordia University Wisconsin in the NAC Tournament opener. In 34 innings pitched over seven games, Hartzell struck out 26 and in the final day of the NAC Tournament, spanning three games, she pitched 16-1/3 innings allowing only one run, six hits and struck out 10.

On the season, Hartzell has a 16-3 record with a 0.95 earned run average. In 124-2/3 innings pitched she has struck out 126.

Next action for the Spartans (37-6 overall record) comes as AU will represent the Northern Athletics Conference in the 2013 NCAA Division III Softball Championships. The Spartans received a Pool C at-large berth after winning the NAC regular season championship.

AU will travel to Angola, Indiana and Trine University as the No. 4 seed in the eight-team regional. The Spartans will take on No. 5 seeded Mount Union University on Thursday, May 9. Game time has been announced as a noon (EST) first-pitch, 11:00 a.m. Aurora time.