Caka, Cowan sweep RRAC weekly honors

WACO – The Red River Athletic Conference named UHV's Lauren Caka and Cameron Cowan its Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for the week of April 24-30 on Monday.

Caka, of Yoakum, picked up her first weekly honors of the year. This is Cowan's third time receiving weekly honors.

It's the second consecutive week in which UHV players were recognized with Claire Blinka earning Player of the Week last week.

"Both of these girls did a lot for us last week," said head coach Lindsey Ortiz. "Lauren came up clutch multiple times for us and Cameron pitched her butt off. There's nobody more deserving of this recognition than these two."

Caka hit .455 with four RBIs and a pair of doubles in four games last week. She drove in the eventual winning run in a 3-2 decision over Texas A&M-San Antonio Wednesday with a sacrifice fly.

In UHV's last 10 games to close the regular season, Caka has hit .344 with nine RBIs to boost her season average to .300.

The senior second baseman also displayed her defensive skills, recording 18 outs on 19 attempts in the field including a game-ending double play in a 2-0 win over University of the Southwest on Saturday.

"I'm grateful for this recognition," Caka said. "I've just been trying to do whatever I can to help my team win and it's paying off. We feel like we're playing our best softball right now, and it's come at the right time with the conference tournament coming up this week."

Cowan tied UHV's all-time shutout mark (13) and extended her complete game record (37) in the 2-0 victory over USW.

The Shiner native had a pair of wins to move to 15-5 on the year, and boasted a 0.88 ERA with 18 strikeouts over 16 innings in three appearances last week.

The junior's nine strikeouts against Texas A&M-San Antonio were a season-high.

"It's so awesome to be named Pitcher of the Week again this week," Cowan said. "I couldn't have done this without the help of my teammates. They have been on fire both offensively and defensively. I'm so excited to bring that into the conference tournament. It's going to be a great week for the Jaguars."

UHV (26-15, 19-9) will open play in the RRAC tournament on Thursday against an opponent to be determined.