By American Midwest Conference Staff

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - A historic week for Paxton Welch of Columbia (Mo.) and Caitlyn Carter of Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) have cemented their names as this week's American Midwest Conference (AMC) Softball Players of the Week.

It was a week to be remembered for Welch as she toed the rubber on Tuesday, April 12 against William Woods (Mo.). Welch stepped in the circle and tossed a perfect game against the Owls en route to the Cougars 5-0 win.

The Jefferson City, Mo., native recorded six strikeouts and earned her ninth win of the season.

From there, Welch pushed her momentum towards the Scots of Lyon College where she earned her second win of the week after throwing a complete game and allowing only one unearned run. She tallied another seven strikeouts without handing out a single walk.

After that Welch's luck ran out as she took her only loss of the week against Central Baptist (Ark). In that game, the junior allowed two earned and seven total runs in the Cougars 6-7 loss.

Nonetheless, Welch has an AMC leading ERA of 1.78 and has now thrown four straight complete games. This marks her third AMC Pitcher of the Week award for 2016.

The AMC's latest game of the week saw some notable action as well after Carter took the show with her 10-for-14 performance last week. The Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) infielder had a career week with three multi-hit games.

In the AMC Game of the Week featuring a double-header between FHU and Williams Baptist (Ark.), Carter went 6-for-7 with a run scored as the two teams split the day. In the second game, Carter went 4-for-4 in the Lady Lions 1-2 loss.

On the week, Carter slugged .929 and recorded a double and triple against Martin Methodist (Tenn.).

That draws up the sophomore's batting average for the season to and AMC-leading .477 coupled with an impressive .504 on-base percentage. She also currently ranks 11th in the NAIA for her 1.676 hits per game.

This is Carter's first AMC Player of the Week award for 2016.