First Softball Awards of 2026, Third Installment for Baseball

Cuyahoga Softball won five of six games last week (March 2-8), leading to two Triceratops — Isabelle Kepple and Julee Phillips — earning OCCAC Athlete of the Week recognition. Baseball’s honorees were Terra State’s Brendan Barlage (position player) and Lorain County’s Dylan Coughlin (pitcher).

Kepple is the Position Player of the Week after cranking five homeruns and a double in 19 at-bats, leading to a 1.474 slugging percentage. She registered at least one hit and one run scored in all six games while also posting a homerun and two or more RBI in five of six contests. While splitting time between first base and catcher, Keppler hit .632 (12-19) for the week with 16 RBI and nine runs scored. This marks Keppler’s second weekly honor after receiving the nod once as a freshman. 

Phillips is now a four-time OCCAC Pitcher of the Week with her back-to-back-to-back selections in 2025. Her latest award comes after logging 15.2 innings during four appearances, including a pair of complete game starts. For the week, Phillips struck out 30 batters while giving up 11 hits and seven walks for a total two earned runs (six runs overall). She tossed a shutout in Cuyahoga’s second win over St. Cloud.

Barlage got on base 17 times in 29 plate appearances, responsible for nine walks and eight hits. Once there, he came around to score 10 times and stole two bases. More than half of his hits went for extra bases (four doubles and a triple), driving in a total of nine runs as the Titans went 7-2 on the week (7-1 in games Barlage played).

Coughlin worked 5.2 innings of a 7-inning victory at MU Hamilton, giving up a lone unearned run to earn the win. He accumulated seven strikeouts with four hits and two walks surrendered.