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Softball Player and Pitcher of the Week Colorado State's Lauren Cusick and San Diego State's Christina Ross honored
March 25, 2008 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Colorado State senior Lauren Cusick and San Diego State senior lefthander Christina Ross have been named Mountain West Conference Softball Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively. Cusick, from Salem, Ore., led the Rams at the Bank of Hawaii Invitational this past weekend with a .455 batting average in 22 at-bats. Cusick recorded 10 hits, two doubles, three home runs, five RBI and scored five runs at the tournament. She finished the weekend with a .955 slugging percentage and 21 total bases in the six games. Cusick went 2-for-4 in the Rams' loss to No. 17/17 Hawai`i with a double and a home run. She hit her second home run of the weekend in a 4-3 victory over St. Mary's. The third baseman finished the game 3-for-4 with two RBI and one run scored. Her leadoff home run in the sixth inning vs. St. Mary's tied the score at three apiece. In the bottom of the eighth, Cusick singled to right field to plate freshman Ivory Allen from second and give the Rams the win. Cusick's third home run of the weekend came in the fifth inning against nationally-ranked Hawai`i. Overall on the season, Cusick has more doubles than any other MWC player (12) and is tied for first place with 11 home runs. Ross, a Santa Clarita, Calif., native, went 3-0 in five appearances to help the Aztecs to a 4-1 record over the weekend, including a 3-1 mark at the Judy Garman Classic. She registered a 0.99 ERA in 28 1/3 innings, while striking out 28 batters. Last weekend's opponents hit .211 off her with just one extra-base hit. Ross, who ended the weekend on an 18.2 scoreless-inning streak, hasn't given up an earned run in 23.2 consecutive innings, dating back to the fifth inning of SDSU's 9-5, 12-inning victory over Washington on Thursday. Against Washington, she pitched all 12 innings (223 pitches) and struck out a career-high tying 12 batters. She stranded 17 Washington base-runners, including nine over the final five innings, which were played using the international tiebreaker rule. The following day, she allowed just one hit and a walk over three innings of scoreless relief against No. 6/6 Michigan. In the evening, Ross pitched eight innings of scoreless ball in San Diego State's 1-0 win over No. 14/18 DePaul, the team's fifth victory over a 2007 Women's College World Series opponent. In her final game of the weekend, she struck out seven batters over five innings of relief in SDSU's 2-0 win over Illinois. -mwc-
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