LAUREN MERCADO OF TRINITY UNIVERSITY, a senior first baseman from Houston, Texas, has been selected the SCAC Softball Offensive Player-of-the-Week for games played through Sunday, April 12th.

Mercado led Trinity to a 5-1 record over the past week, including a four-game SCAC series sweep against Centenary, after splitting with Mary Hardin-Baylor earlier in the week.

Mercado hit .611 (11-18) overall last week, including .800 (8-10) in conference play. She scored seven runs to go with eight RBI, hitting two doubles and a home run for the week. Mercado is currently riding an 11-game hitting streak, which is the longest of the season for the Tigers.

To open the series with Centenary, Mercado was 3-for-3 with two runs scored in game one, then was 1-for-3 with two runs and three RBI - hitting her 12th career home run. She finished the series with two hits in each half of the second day's doubleheader, starting off by going 2-2 with two doubles and two RBI.

For the season, Mercado is now second on the team with a .337 batting average (28-83), scoring 15 runs and driving home 17 RBI. She leads all Tiger players with six doubles, and is tied for the lead with her three home runs. 

Other outstanding performances in the SCAC:
Junior shortstop Erin Begle of Dallas had a solid weekend as Dallas swept Schreiner University, and tied a program-record 20 wins. The junior from Houston, Texas, compiled five hits, with three of them doubles. Junior shortstop Grace Estes of Texas Lutheran led TLU to a three-game sweep of second-place Southwestern by hitting .667 and collecting five runs scored, a double, a stolen base and two RBI. Austin College did not play. Centenary, Schreiner, and Southwestern did not nominate anyone.