Weekend Recap
Mountain West teams went 6-10 last week in non-league play, including San Diego State's sweep of No. 20 Georgia Tech. This week rounds out non-conference play, with five of the six teams in action. BYU, New Mexico and San Diego State will play at home, while Colorado State and Utah will finish on the road.
Television Tidbits
The Mountain West Conference 2007 softball broadcast schedule includes an unprecedented 11 games on national and regional television. The television exposure provided by the MWC broadcast partners far exceeds the softball coverage in the previous seven-year history of the league. Seven games will be shown on the MountainWest Sports Network - The Mtn., while four games will be broadcast live nationally on CSTV: College Sports Television.
National Honors
San Diego State's Erin Floros was named to the initial "Watch List" for the 6th Annual USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year Award. This award is designed to recognize outstanding athletic achievement by collegiate softball players across the country. Last season, Floros became SDSU's first softball All-American when she was named to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA third-team and the Easton-Bell Sports first-team.
BYU
BYU is second in the MWC with 37 home runs, led by Jodi Norton's eight...Norton is also second in the conference with 29 RBI...Senior Jennifer Whiteley's .416 batting average is a career best as well as good for second in the MWC...Freshman Angeline Quiocho has eight stolen bases through 30 games...BYU's single season record is 20...BYU is 70-29 all-time at home and has never finished a season with a losing home record.
Colorado State
Senior pitcher Jessica Strickland is just four innings shy of becoming just the third pitcher in CSU softball history to record 500 innings in the circle...Strickland enters Tuesday's game against Creighton third on that list with 496.0 innings pitched in her career...In the Rams victory over Northern Colorado, junior Julia Kloppe recorded the team's 41st home run and third grand slam of the season...The 41 home runs by the Rams leads the MWC and puts the Rams on pace to break the team's single-season mark of 58 homers set by the 2004 squad.
New Mexico
The Lobos are 2-1 at home this year...UNM took two of three against Utah Valley State on March 17-18 to open the home schedule...The Lobos are hitting .249 as a team with junior Lindsey Elcess leading the way at the plate with a .302 average...Seven different UNM players are hitting over .250...Junior Kelly Ninemire started all three games last weekend against the Wildcats and has a 4-7 overall record with a team leading 3.99 ERA.
San Diego State
SDSU went 3-1 last week, with victories against No. 20 Georgia Tech (5-4 and 1-0) and Cal State Fullerton (3-2, in eight innings), which were receiving votes in both national polls...The Aztecs are now 4-6 against nationally ranked teams this season with three of the six losses coming by one run...SDSU has won nine of its last 10 games...The Aztecs, who play host to Brown on Wednesday, are 10-1 in their last 11 home games.
UNLV
UNLV will take this upcoming week off and return to action to open MWC play on April 5 in a televised doubleheader against Utah...Redshirt freshman Jaci Hull led UNLV with a .538 hitting percentage this past weekend, while cranking out four doubles and two home runs...Hull amassed a staggering 17 total bases for an on-base percentage of .600 and her seven hits helped her to a 1.308 slugging percentage...Stephanie Bregante went 1-1 on the weekend with a five-hit shut out over Sacramento State.
Utah
The Utes are 1-3 in one-run games, most recently falling to Ohio State, 1-0...Opponents have scored five or more runs on Utah only seven times this year...Over the last seven games, the Utes have out-scored their rivals, 30-11, and have 17 extra-base hits to their opponents' seven...Hailey Davenport tied for the team lead in hitting (.429, 9-for-21) and recorded nine of the team's 27 RBI last weekend...Meghan Crouse tied for the team lead in hitting (.429) and led the team with six runs scored...Since recording a 3.03 earned-run average over the first two weekends of play, Ute hurler Meghan Dyer has made 17 appearances and has only surrendered 1.07 earned runs per game...Dyer's ERA has plummeted to an impressive 1.47 on the year.
