NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – The Atlantic 10 Conference has named Rhode Island senior Skyler Rapuano and Saint Louis fifth-year Gabbie Kowalik as its Co-Softball Players of the Week.  George Mason graduate student Aly Rayle was named Pitcher of the Week and SLU freshman Abby Mallo was selected as the league’s Rookie of the Week. The awards were announced Monday and are for games played March 13-19.
 
Rapuano batted .700 (7-for-10) over four games on the week. She had three multi-hit games and led the Rams to a series win at George Washington to open A-10 play. An outfielder from East Haddam, Conn., she played a hand in eight of Rhody's 10 runs against the Colonials. She scored twice and had the game-winning RBI in a 3-2 win in the series opener, and in the series finale, Rapuano was 3-for-3 with a walk in four plate appearances. She also drove in three runs and scored two more in the 7-4 win. For the week, she had a .750 on-base percentage, with seven hits, including a pair of doubles for a slugging percentage of .900.
 
Kowalik posted a .667 batting average and reached base in 11 of her 14 plate appearances across the Billikens’ four games for a .786 OBP. She began the week with two hits, an RBI and two hit-by-pitch in a 6-3 loss to No. 14 Kentucky. In SLU's A-10 opening series vs. St. Bonaventure, the centerfielder from New Braunfels, Texas, drew three walks in game one, and she went 2-for-3 with two RBIs in game two. She finished out the series with a 2-for-4 performance with a double and two RBI in game three. Kowalik also was successful in both of her steal attempts.
 
Rayle won all three of her starts, pitching 16 innings in total which included one complete game. In those three starts, the Herndon, Va., native struck out 21 batters and had an ERA of just 0.44. In her first game against Coppin State, she threw four no-hit innings with seven strikeouts. She also tallied 14 strikeouts in 12 innings in a pair of A-10 wins over Loyola Chicago.
 
Mallo registered a .429 batting average, a 1.143 slugging percentage and a 1.572 OPS in a 3-1 week for Saint Louis. She began the week with a two-hit effort, including a two-run home run, in a 6-3 loss to No. 14 Kentucky. In SLU's A-10 opening series vs. St. Bonaventure, she had a two-run double in game one, she homered twice and drove in five runs in game two, and delivered a two-run single in game three. Mallo did not strike out in any of her 14 plate appearances.