Burnside flexes
to win the SEC award
The Braxton Burnside shortstop provided plenty of energy for Arkansas No. 17 on its sweep in South Carolina over the weekend.
Burnside hit four home runs and drove seven of 14 Razorbacks races, which earned him recognition on Tuesday as the SEC’s co-player of the week.
Coach Courtney Deifel said she does more than hit.
The Razorbacks were trying to get a read on a variety of Gamecocks pitchers arriving over the weekend in South Carolina. Burnside was as good as some of the scouts’ videos, said Deifel.
“When you are trying to get a video and you are at the mercy of the host school angles … it is sometimes difficult to see exactly what we are up against,” said Deifel. “We were talking as a team and we said that the best thing for us is the way Braxton sees the game and the pitcher, she is equivalent to the video most of the time … it’s just her perspective and how she communicates with the team and in a way that builds trust. “
She hit the home run of two runs of victory in Saturday’s tenth round and added another chance of two runs in the fifth shot of Sunday’s game.
Burnside has 15 home runs this season, which are tied for second in a single season in the show’s history. She was instrumental in the Arkansas record of her first scan in the SEC series of three games since 2009.
She shared the prize with Bailey Hemphill, from Alabama.
– Paul Boyd