Mel Rees Named GNAC Softball Player & Rookie of Week

WINTHROP, Mass. - After dominating performances both at the plate and in the pitching circle, first-year student-athlete Mel Rees (Middleborough, Mass.) has been named the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Softball Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week, announced Monday, April 1, by the league office.

Rees led the Pride to a doubleheader sweep over Fisher College last Wednesday, March 27, by hitting .857 (6-for-7) with an .875 on-base percentage and a 2.286 slugging percentage. In the second game of the twinbill, she earned her first career collegiate victory with a five-inning complete game, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out a season-high 10 batters.

In the first game of the doubleheader, Rees was a perfect 4-for-4 with four runs scored. She hit her first career collegiate triple in the first inning and a three-run home run in the second inning, her first career collegiate home run, followed by singles in the third and fourth innings. She went 2-for-3 at the plate in the second game, including an RBI triple in the first inning and a leadoff home run in the third inning.

So far this season, Rees is hitting .474 (18-for-38), fourth in the GNAC in batting average, with three doubles, two triple, two home runs, eight runs scored, and 11 runs batted in. In the pitching circle, she has collected 26 strikeouts in 30 2/3 innings of work.

This is the first GNAC Rookie of the Week award for a Regis player since May 3, 2022, and the first GNAC Player of the Week honor since Ellery Rasmussen was selected March 9, 2020, after hitting .438 during the team's Spring Break trip to Florida.

Regis College is scheduled to face Eastern Nazarene College in a non-conference doubleheader Wednesday, April 3, at Mitchell/McCoy Field in Quincy, Mass., starting at 3 p.m.