After her first weekend playing for the Rhode Island Rams Softball team, Freshman Catcher and Outfielder Faith Musselwhite took home Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week honors.
In her first five games in a Rhode Island uniform, Musselwhite batted 8-15, which is good for a .533 batting average. Musselwhite also added six runs batted in and three runs after reaching base safely. She added two home runs as well, both in the Rams game against the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In that game she went 3-4 from the plate, drove in four runs in and reached home plate herself three times. Her other hit to go along with the two home runs was a double, making all three of her hits in the contest extra base hits. The Rams overall went 2-3 on their opening weekend, getting wins against Howard, who they beat 8-0, and Radford who they beat 4-3.
“I didn’t expect to come in and make that big of an impact,” said Musselwhite on winning A-10 Rookie of the Week. “It was just exciting for me, I didn’t expect it. I didn’t know they even had that award.”
In her first game as a Ram, Musselwhite went 1-3 from the plate, with her lone hit being a run-batted-in triple. She went 1-1 in her next game, 2-4 in her third game of the weekend, 1-3 with an RBI double in the fourth game and of course had the offensive explosion in the last game of the weekend.
“For me it’s just to make contact,” said Musselwhite on her approach at the plate. “That’s what Coach Mary [Holt-Kesch] said. She said if you’re gonna go up there and try to hit a homerun you’re not gonna hit one. That’s just my mentality is to just hit the ball square, and try to do the best I can to just hit it where it’s pitched.”
In her youth, Musselwhite was originally was a soccer player in her native Apopka, Florida. But her dad was the one to get her into the sport of softball.
“My dad got me into softball when I was eight, between eight and 10,” said Musselwhite. “I was playing soccer before then and he said it was either soccer or softball and I said I would try softball. I’m really glad that that’s happened. I picked softball because it was new and I knew my parents weren’t the biggest fans of soccer. I saw more of a career for it for me going to college and that’s why I wanted to do it.”
In the weekend following her Rookie of the Week honors, she added a 2-3 outing at the plate on Feb. 24 against the University of Maine. Rhody now has the next weekend off, before they travel to the Charlestown Invitational hosted by the College of Charleston. Their the Rams will play two games on Friday facing off against North Carolina State University and C of C. URI will then play twice again on Saturday against Youngstown State and Marist, before they play once against in state rival Bryant on Sunday.