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SOU players honored ASHLAND - The Southern Oregon University softball team's hot start and rise to first place in the Cascade Conference standings resulted in special honors for two Raider players. Junior all-star pitcher Brandi Brown earned league and NAIA Region I pitcher-of-the-week kudos for the second consecutive week, while junior third baseman Angie Chaplin garnered player-of-the-week status after SOU (22-4, 10-2) swept road doubleheaders against Albertson (14-3 and 7-0) and 17th-ranked Oregon Tech (2-1 and 4-3). Brown, the first Raider athlete to garner the back-to-back league awards since 1999, followed up last week's 4-0 record and 0.90 ERA with another 4-0 performance and a 0.60 ERA. The 5-foot-6 fireballer from Colton recorded her eighth shutout of the season in a 7-0 complete-game three-hitter at Albertson. She then shut down OIT to the tune of one earned run and 12 strikeouts in 13� innings. She completed the week with 18 strikeouts and only two earned runs in 23� innings. Brown, responsible for 22 of the team's 24 wins last season without conference or regional player-of-the-week fanfare, is 20-4 overall this year and leads the league in wins and strikeouts (129 in 144.1 innings) and is second in ERA (1.21). The first-team regional all-star has won eight consecutive decisions, and opponents are batting just .193 against her. Chaplin powered her way to league and regional player-of-the-week status for the first time after going a team-best 10-for-15 (.667) with three home runs and nine RBIs in the four Raider wins. The former South Medford High star keyed the sweep at OIT with a 6-for-8 performance, including a career-best four hits and a solo homer in the come-from-behind, 11-inning affair in Game 2 (a 4-3 SOU win). Chaplin clubbed the school's first grand slam in the 14-3 win at Albertson, and the estimated 260-foot shot was the longest in Coyote field history. The prolific week upped her season batting average to .379, and she now ranks second in the conference for doubles (nine) and homers (four). SOU, a second-year intercollegiate program that leads defending champion OIT by a game in the Cascade title chase, starts an eight-game home stand to end the regular season Friday at 2 p.m. against Concordia. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.