For the second time this season, South Arkansas College has had both baseball and softball student-athletes selected for weekly regional honors.
Makenna Denofrio, a sophomore infielder from Opelousas, Louisiana; and Trace Shoup, a sophomore infielder from El Dorado; both were tabbed as NJCAA Region 2 Players of the Week for the week ending April 16.
Shoup batted .523 with a home run and eight RBIs over the week. He scored six runs as the 18th-ranked Stars (32-11, 20-4 in Region 2 play) went 3-2, which included a road victory over top-ranked Louisiana State-Eunice in non-region play and two home wins over 12th-ranked Murray State in region play.
For the season, Shoup has carved his name among the best NJCAA DII hitters in the country, as he currently is in the top five in RBIs (59) and in the top 10 in hits (63). He is in the third in Region 2 in RBIs and fifth in hits, and is top 10 in slugging percentage (.713), total runs (50) and home runs (10). His .384 batting average places him just outside of the top 10 in that category. It is Shoup’s second Regional Player of the Week selection this season.
Denofrio batted .615 with a home run and 11 RBIs over the week, while the Stars (10-30, 6-12) went 0-4. Her season RBI total puts her in the top 10 in Region 2, and her .340 season average leads the team. She also is in the region’s top 10 in slugging percentage (.711) and home runs (five).
This marks the second Player of the Week honor of Denofrio’s SouthArk career, as she also was selected for the week ending May 1, 2022, during her freshman season.
