WNCC's Bianca Duran earns NJCAA Pitcher of the Week honors

               Western Nebraska Community College's Bianca Duran earns national softball pitcher of week honors by the NJCAA which was announced on Wednesday.

                This past week, Duran helped the Cougars to an 8-0 week and improve to 52-8 on the season.

                 In the pitching circle, Bianca went 4-0 with a 0.00 earned run average. She notched her NJCAA-leading 33rd win of the season, setting a school record. She is now 33-1 with two saves on the year.

                Last week, Bianca was part of a perfect game in an 8-0 win against North Platte Community College on April 26. Bianca went four innings and struck out six followed by relief pitcher Shelby McGraw tossing the fifth inning to preserve the perfect game.

                Overall, Bianca tossed 24 innings, gave up nine hits, two runs, zero earned runs, walked one and struck out 20. Besides setting the season pitching record this week in a win against Garden City on Sunday, she also holds the career pitching record of 57 wins.

                Offensively, Bianca was just as bright where she batted .455 (10 of 22) with eight runs scored, two home runs, nine RBIs, two walks, two doubles, and two stolen bases. She ranks among the leaders in the NJCAA in home runs, doubles, batting average, and slugging percentage.

                She also signed on Saturday to attend NCAA Division I Louisiana Tech University.

                Duran and the rest of the Cougars open Region IX tournament action Thursday at McCook with hopes of bringing home a fifth straight- Region IX championship.