Two Voyageurs earn player of the week, By JOE KRAUSE, Sports Editor

Although they have only been outdoors for a couple of practices this season, Rainy River Community College freshmen Amanda Clark and Megan Pinette must be doing something right. The Voyageurs power hitting duo have each been named Minnesota Community College Conference Northern Division Player of the Week.
“It is pretty exciting, we have a talented lineup and we’ve got some players that have asserted themselves early this year and I am very proud of them,” Voyageurs head coach Dieter Humbert said. “They were accomplished high school players and are assuming the leadership roles early which is important for us.”
Pinette was player of the week for week one and has started the season with a hot bat. Pinette has six homeruns including a grand slam and has been a solid presence in the middle of the team’s lineup and is currently tied for the school’s single-season homerun record.
“She (Pinette) is one of the premier power hitters that we’ve had in our program,” Humbert said. “I think she is a Division I hitter, she is a great kid, very humble and wants to continue to get better and we are pretty thrilled to have her.”
Pinette is excited about the honor, but says that she is more focused on the team improving.
“I think we are off to a good start and we have been practicing hard and we area starting to show it on the field,” Pinette said. “It’s way better to be outside, you can finally adjust to higher pop-flies and it was really hard for our fielders in the gym. Being outside is way different.”
Clark, a 2007 Littlefork-Big Falls Graduate received the honor for the second week of the season. Clark went 5-for-5 from the plate including three doubles and a triple with three RBIs in a pair of games played against Central Lakes to earn the nod.
“It was exciting,” Clark said. “We put a lot more time in in college than we did in high school. The night before I went 5-for-5, I put an extra half an hour in in the batting cage just working on my hitting. I changed up my hitting stance a little bit.”
“Amanda was a find,” Humbert said. “I knew she was a talented player and Mike (Imhof, head coach of Littlefork-Big Falls) does a great job of developing his players and she is definitely the kind of protege college player that we are looking for.”
The Voyageurs will be back on the field on Tuesday when they host the Northland Pioneers at 3 p.m.