USF's Eriksen, Catalano earn Big East honors

USF's softball team, fresh off the first regular-season Big East championship in school history, picked up two major awards Wednesday night, as coach Ken Eriksen was honored as the league's Coach of the Year, and freshman phenom Capri Catalano was chosen as the conference Rookie of the Year.

Eriksen is the first USF coach to earn Big East Coach of the Year honors after guiding the Bulls to a first-place finish, despite losing his mother to a two-year battle with cancer, and nearly losing junior pitcher Cristi Ecks, who collapsed during a practice session and went nearly three minutes without breathing or a heartbeat before she was revived by athletic trainers on the scene. Eriksen has said the key to his team's success has been their focus, but he's a key to that focus as well.

Catalano, who came to USF after setting state high school records in New Jersey, has been dominant in the pitcher's circle, with the conference's lowest ERA at 0.96, the league high with six saves.

Two Bulls -- senior outfielder Kit Dunbar and junior second baseman Britta Giddens -- were named to the All-Big East first team, while three others -- Courtney Mosch, JoJo Medina and Catalano -- made the second team.

The top-seeded Bulls, hoping to earn only the second Big East tournament championship in USF's three years in the conference, open tournament play at Louisville at 4 p.m. Thursday against eighth-seeded Providence.

Comments

[Ari Hinkelberger]

Congrats to the coach. I do think CJL would have been coach of the year last year if Delbert Alverado wasn't our place kicker and Grothe didn't have a knack for throwing the ball to the other team..(remember his 6 int game against Cinci and his pick six against Uconn)

But like they say, if my sister had nuts she would have been my brother.

[Adam]

Congrats to Ken, he has been doing it year in and year out for a long time. He should get some national recognition as well, so it's time for our Bulls to make a World Series and put him on the big stage.

Ari- If Grothe didn't have a knack for winning games, CJL wouldn't have had a chance. I remember in that 6 pick game, Grothe threw 2 passes in the end zone for the win at the end. One was flat out dropped, and one was to a receiver that was being "Jay Bergman'ed"