COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - San Diego State (27-18-0, 6-2-0 MWC) sits atop the league race with UNLV, BYU, Utah and Colorado State in a four-way tie for second place as the Mountain West heads into the third week of conference play. The Aztecs take on UNLV this weekend to headline the MWC slate. Other conference games scheduled for the weekend are BYU at Colorado State on Thursday, Utah at New Mexico on Friday, the Cougars at the Lobos on Saturday and the Utes taking on the Rams Sunday. In non-conference action, UNLV travels to
Riverside, Calif., for a single game against the Highlanders of UC Riverside on Thursday
at 3 p.m.
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE QUICK HITS
BYU
BYU is second in the MWC with a .298 team batting average.
Sophomore Ianeta Le`i leads the Cougars with a .356 batting average.
The BYU pitching staff has a team ERA of 3.31 on the season.
Sophomore pitcher Brooke Boyce returned to the pitch 2.2 innings and record a save last weekend against Utah less than two weeks after taking a line drive to the face, resulting in surgery.
COLORADO STATE
Freshman thirdbaseman Brittany Huerta became the first freshman in school history to record double-digit home runs when she hit her tenth long ball of the season in the Rams' 7-3 victory over UNLV.
With the 2-1 and 3-2 losses to San Diego State, the Rams have now lost seven one-run contests on the year, almost double the team's total of four one-run losses from a season ago. However, the 2003 team was defeated by more than three runs six times, while this year's squad has yet to lose a game by more than two runs.
Through 37 games this season, no team has been able to hold CSU scoreless. The Rams have not been shutout since March 28, 2003, a 1-0 loss to UNLV (63 games). Over that same stretch Colorado State has shut out 10 opponents, including Utah, New Mexico and San Diego State during 2003 MWC play.
NEW MEXICO
Junior pitcher Ashley Perkins has the lowest opposing batting average in the MWC (.193), and is second in innings pitched (106.0), wins (12) and games started (17).
SAN DIEGO STATE
San Diego State has won 13 consecutive home MWC games, far surpassing the previous school record of seven, from March 30-May 4, 2002.
The Aztecs played their third consecutive extra inning game last weekend for the first time this season, earning a 3-2, eight inning victory over Colorado State. It was SDSU's second walk-off win of the season and the first that came in extra innings.
Senior center fielder Janna Kovensky (San Diego, Calif.) scored five runs over the weekend, tying her with Kellie Nordhagen (1999-2002) for the school record for career runs scored with 126. She also holds the career walks record (64), surpassing Chrystal Friesen's (1993-96) record of 62. Kovensky is in the top-five of 11 all-time SDSU offensive categories.
The Aztec offense turned it on in game two against CSU on Sunday, winning 8-2 and scoring more runs in a MWC game since nine crossed the plate on April 26, 2002, in a 9-2 home victory over the Rams, a span of 29 MWC games.
UNLV
UNLV has already won as many conference games (four) as it won all of last season.
Despite only two home runs through their first 40 games this year, the Rebels have hit five since MWC play began.
UNLV plays its last non-conference game of the season this week at UC Riverside.
UTAH
Senior Glennis Donnelly needs just two doubles to tie the Utah season record of 17.
Donnelly and freshman Devina Quintero both have current seven-game hitting streaks.
Senior Melissa Stahnke has moved into second place on the Utah career RBI list with 157 as of April 10.
