By Brad Welborn, Northwestern State Assistant Sports Information Director; featured graphic Brad Welborn
NATCHITOCHES – A video game like weekend for freshman Sophia Livers made her an easy choice for Southland Conference Hitter of the Week, the league office announced on Monday afternoon.
The freshman from Bossier City was blazing hot at the plate going 8-for-9, an .889 batting average, with three multi-hit games in Northwestern State’s conference series win against Texas A&M-Commerce this past weekend.
Out of the nine hole in the lineup, Livers was the offensive catalyst for the Demons tallying a pair of doubles, a triple, scoring two runs, stealing a base and driving in a run on the weekend. Her first career extra base hits led her to an astronomical 1.333 slugging percentage for the weekend.
She picked up the first of her two 3-for-3 games in the series opener, driving in the tying run on a bunt single, her first hit of the weekend. She added a double and steal later in the game.
In the Demons’ first home conference win of the season on Friday night, Livers went 2-for-3 with a triple and two runs scored. She scored the final two runs of NSU’s 6-0 win over the Lions, racing home on a Tristin Court single up the middle and a sacrifice fly from Taylor Williams.
Livers matched her new career high in a game with three more hits in the Saturday finale, adding another double that banged off the wall in left field, one inning before the Demons hit three doubles for their comeback 3-2 win.
With the most productive weekend at the plate in her young career, Livers raised her season batting average by more than 70 points in three games and now leads the team in hitting in conference games with a .368 average.
The Benton HS product leads NSU this season with nine stolen bases and seven sacrifice hits with the third fewest strikeouts among qualified batters. She is one of three players that has started every game this season for the Demons.
NSU hosts Louisiana Tech on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. at the Demon Diamond and live on ESPN+ before a pivotal conference road series at HCU this weekend.