Lyon Earns Big Ten Pitcher of the Week Honor

April 25, 2011

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Sophomore Chelsea Lyon was tabbed as the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week Monday after leading Iowa to a 4-2 victory over No. 1 Michigan last Saturday in Ann Arbor. The honor is the first of Lyon’s career.

The Broken Arrow, Okla., native struck out seven Wolverine batters in the contest, while allowing two runs on eight hits in the complete game victory. Her performance helped the Hawkeyes knock off a No. 1 ranked team for the first time since the 2005 season.

After giving up both runs in the bottom of the third inning, Michigan threatened again in the fourth, loading the bases with no outs. Lyon, however, pitched her way out of the jam, getting a groundout and back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.

Lyon again threw her way out of trouble in the fourth inning, as she got Amanda Chidester to ground out to Michelle Zoeller at third bases to leave the bases loaded for the second straight inning.

The sophomore then settled in, retiring the Wolverines in order in the fifth before pitching around a leadoff walk in the sixth and a single in the seventh to notch her team-leading 14th victory of the season.

Lyon opened the week throwing four innings against Iowa State, allowing two hits with no earned runs in Iowa’s 4-3 victory in the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series match-up.

Lyon is the first Iowa pitcher to garner an accolade this season.

Iowa (26-17, 8-4) hosts Wisconsin in a doubleheader Wednesday afternoon at Pearl Field beginning at 3 p.m.