THIS WEEK
All six MWC teams will be in tournament action this week, with UNLV (6-5) facing two top-25 opponents, including #5 Texas and #9 Texas A&M at the Palm Springs Classic in Palm Springs, Fla. San Diego State (5-2) will be hosting the Aztec Invitational, which includes MWC competitor Colorado State (7-4). BYU (8-2) will travel to Houston, Texas, for the Crowne Plaza Tournament, while New Mexico (1-9) plays at in-state rival New Mexico State before entering the UTEP Invitational in El Paso, Texas. The tournament field in El Paso also includes MWC competitor Utah (4-5). Overall the MWC is 30-26 in non-conference play in its second week of competition.
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE QUICK HITS
BYU
BYU (8-2) recorded two come-from-behind victories against Purdue and Kansas in the Louisville Desert Classic in Las Vegas, Nev...The Cougars also hit four home runs in two games, led by Ianeta Le'i's two...BYU's offense exploded for 11 runs on 13 hits in an 11-0 win over UC Davis...The Cougars only two losses on the season are to Big East foe Notre Dame and Texas State.
COLORADO STATE
Two Ram's, junior Jessica Strickland and sophomore Lauren Cusick are hitting above .450 two weeks into the season...Strickland is hitting .500 (20-for-40) with six home runs and 17 RBI while slugging 1.050...Cusick is hitting .469 (15-for-32) to start the season with three home runs and nine RBI and a slugging percentage of .906...The Colorado State softball squad added eight home runs this weekend to the season total, while Cusick tied her season total from last year, hitting three home runs this weekend, two in the last game versus #14 Oregon State...Senior transfer Tara Harbert has recorded seven of the team's eight stolen bases so far this season, taking two against Cal Poly...Harbert is second on the team with 39 at bats and first with 27 assists.
NEW MEXICO
Last weekend the Lobos (1-9) went 1-4 on the weekend, with the one win coming against Hawaii...In the 7-3 victory, New Mexico freshman pitcher Jen Mendenhall captured her first career win...The rookie hurler held the Rainbow Wahine to three runs on just five hits over seven innings of work...Senior second baseman Kristina Schmallen continued her hot streak of hitting in last weekend's tournament, adding two more home runs to her stats...She currently leads the team with five home runs in 10 games and holds a .429 BA...With five home runs already this season, Schmallen just needs two more to break into the top 10 for most home runs in a single season at New Mexico.
SAN DIEGO STATE
In its game against Rider, San Diego State (5-2) set numerous single-game school records including most runs (20), most hits (18), most home runs (five), most RBI (19), largest margin of victory (18) and most runs in an inning (13 - third)...Megan McDonald's six RBI set an Aztec single-game record...Against Rider, SDSU started eight underclassmen for the third consecutive game...Ten different SDSU players had at least one hit and eight had at least one RBI...LHP Christina Ross allowed only one earned run in her first 21 innings pitched (0.33 ERA), before giving up two runs in the final 4 1/3 innings against UC Santa Barbara.
UNLV
UNLV's (6-5) Marissa Nichols is currently hitting .405 thanks to her .438 average this past weekend in the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic...In the first weekend of play she hit .381 with eight hits and this weekend she had seven hits...Through two weekends of play, the Rebels have knocked 11 balls out of the park and the team is averaging one home run per game...Becky McDonald notched the team's first shutout in a 10-0 five-inning win over UC Davis this past weekend...On the weekend, she had an ERA of 0.00 in 6.1 innings of work and closed out the game versus Cal on Sunday by allowing no earned runs in that contest, while striking out all four batters she faced.
UTAH
Meghan Dyer led the Utes (4-5) from the circle in striking out 13 batters while allowing only two walks last weekend...For the year, the transfer has a team-high 27 strikeouts to only eight walks...True freshman Andrea Hoffman went 4-for-9 (.444) last week, drew three walks and laid down a sacrifce...Among her four hits was an RBI single and her first career double...Diana Phillips leads the team with a nine-game hitting streak while Devina Quintero is sporting a five-game streak...Utah has out-hit four of its last five opponents and is 4-1 when it holds its opponents to one home run or less in a game.
