ELMIRA, N.Y. -- Katie McDougal '18 of the softball team and Dylan Bellinger '17 of the baseball team have been named the Elmira College Athletes of the Week for their superb efforts on the diamond over the past week.

McDougal batted .400 (4-for-10) over a six-game span, tied for the highest average on the team among starters, with a double, one run scored and one driven in. In the pitcher's circle, she threw a complete game in all three of her starts and compiled 17 strikeouts in 23.1 innings of work.

The Pawling, New York, native began her week by earning the save with 1.1 shutdown innings on April 3, when the Soaring Eagles bested SUNY Canton, 8-5, in the first game of a non-conference doubleheader. With the bases loaded in the sixth, McDougal fanned Canton's Desiree Pryce to preserve a two-run lead. She then struck out two of the three Roos she faced in the seventh to secure the "W". In the nightcap, she struck out a season-high eight despite taking the loss in extra innings and was 2-for-4 at the plate.

In the second game of a twin bill against Medaille College at Eldridge Park on April 5, McDougal was not only the pitcher of record, but she also drove in the winning run in a 3-2 triumph over the Mavericks. In 7.0 innings of work, she scattered two runs on six hits with five punch outs. In the third inning with the score knotted at 2-all, the third-year pitcher picked up her lone hit of the contest, which plated Emily Clark '19 for what proved to be the game-winning run.

McDougal and the Elmira softball team are set to conclude their season-long eight-game homestand on Saturday, April 15, with an Empire 8 Conference doubleheader against Utica College. First pitch for the opening game is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Eldridge Park Stadium.

Bellinger paced the EC baseball team at the plate in six games last week and played important roles in a pair of walk-off victories at historic Dunn Field. He boasted team highs across his slash line with an average of .435, on-base percentage of .500, and a sky-high .696 slugging percentage, having gone 10-for-23 with three doubles and one home run. He was also walked on four occasions, drove in four runs and scored five more.

On April 5, he played the hero, as the Elmira native helped the Purple and Gold walk off against Wells College by a final score of 3-2. With two outs and the winning run only 90 feet away in the bottom of the ninth, Bellinger smacked a single up the middle that allowed Sam Plaugher '20 to tally the winning run. It was the third of his game-high three hits in the non-league contest.

The power-hitting first baseman then flexed his muscle on Sunday afternoon in the opening game of Elmira's Empire 8 twin bill against Ithaca College. He finished 2-for-3 in the matinee, with both hits going for extra bases. Bellinger doubled in his first at-bat and tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning on a 2-0 pitch that he crushed over the wall in left field. That run was crucial down the stretch, as the Soaring Eagles overcame a 2-1 deficit in the final inning and picked up another 3-2 walk-off win, EC's first-ever triumph over its Route 13 rival.

A graduate of nearby Thomas A. Edison High School, Bellinger ranks among the conference's best hitters, as he sits fourth in both average (.407) and slugging percentage (.610), while ranking 10th in on-base percentage (.471). After leading the E8 in doubles in 2016, he is tied for fifth on the leaderboard with six two-baggers.

The Soaring Eagles will continue their conference slate on the road this weekend, as Elmira will travel to Hoboken, New Jersey, to take on Stevens Institute of Technology. The series will begin with a doubleheader on Friday, April 14, at 4:00 p.m.