LAST WEEK'S RECAP
BYU moved into first place in the MWC standings, posting a 5-1 record last week, including a sweep at nationally-ranked San Diego State. Utah stands in second place, after going 3-1 and sweeping the series at UNLV. New Mexico was perfect last week, defeating New Mexico State on the road and taking two from Colorado State at home.
IN THE RANKINGS
San Diego State continues to be ranked in the USA Today/NFCA poll at No. 24 and the ESPN.com/USA Collegiate Softball poll at No. 22 this week. BYU is also receiving votes in both polls.
BYU
The Cougars went 5-1 during the previous week, and they have now won 12 of their last 14 games...Christina Gwyn-Trice and Christie Zinanti threw a combined no-hitter against Southern Utah, marking the first of the year for the team...In the Cougars' two games against San Diego State, both games went into extra innings, the first ended when BYU scored two runs in the top of the eighth and the second ended by a solo homer from Angeline Quiocho in the top of the ninth...BYU allowed only a combined six runs in its six contests.
COLORADO STATE
Colorado State is currently in second place in the MWC with 44 home runs...Senior Lauren Cusick leads the conference and the team with 14 home runs and is currently on track to hit 19, which would surpass sophomore Ashley Munoz, who hit 14 last season, for the top spot on the single-season home run chart...Cusick is also on pace to break the all-time home run record held by former Ram Brittany Huerta, who hit 33 in her career at Colorado State...The Rams hold the best team batting average in the MWC (.306) and also boast the highest slugging percentage (.510)...Five Rams (Caitlan Stem, Lauren Cusick, Julia Kloppe, Munoz, Allison Majam) are currently batting over .300...Those five players have accounted for 71.1 percent (123 of 173) of the team's RBI and are also responsible for 79.1 percent (34 of 43) of the team's home runs.
NEW MEXICO
New Mexico picked up its 20th win of the season last Sunday in a 4-1 victory over Colorado State, moving to 20-14 overall...With 15 games remaining, New Mexico has tied its win total from all of last season...Katie Gilmore is hitting a solid .563 in MWC play this season, helping the Lobos to a 4-2 conference record..She has nine hits, 4 RBI's, and two doubles thus far...Kelly Ninemire has recorded 13 wins this season, which is one shy of her 2007 total of 14...Ninemire's 27 career victories ties Katie Cramer for tenth place all-time in Lobo Softball history.
SAN DIEGO STATE
SDSU's Christina Ross has pitched 30 1/3 innings without issuing a walk...Despite playing in just her third season at SDSU, Ross is five strikeouts short of tying four-time all-MWC selection Celena Velasquez (2003-06) for second on the all-time list with 529...Sandra Durazo (1998-01) is No. 1 on the list with 543 career strikeouts...Ross is also 24 strikeouts short of tying Velasquez's 2005 school-record season total of 211 strikeouts...Of SDSU's 13 losses this season, 11 have been by two or less runs, including a pair of extra-inning losses to No. 1 Arizona State and No. 4 UCLA.
UNLV
UNLV's Jaci Hull has been the key offensive threat for the Rebels in 2008 as she leads the team in batting average (.313), runs (32), home runs (10), RBI (28), total bases (77), slugging (.670), walks (33) and on-base (.484)...Stephanie Bregante holds a 12-13 record and an ERA of 2.77, as the top hurler for UNLV...She has made 34 appearances in the circle with 27 coming as starts...In all, she has tossed a staggering 171.2 of the team's 306.0 innings.
UTAH
Utah's Ashley Smuda allowed one hit in 15.2 innings pitched over the weekend..She pitched a one-hitter against No. 18 San Diego State and threw her second no-hitter of the season vs. UNLV...She is the first Ute pitcher to pitch two no-hitters in a season since Ali Andrus-Sagas in 1997, who had three that year...With the win over No. 18 SDSU, the Utes defeated their third ranked team of the season, as they beat then-No. 22 Texas, 5-4, on Feb. 29, while downing No. 14 DePaul, 3-2, on March 20...With eight hits during the conference series, Diana Phillips has 231 career hits, which ties her for fifth on the all-time list at Utah with Cyndee Bennett (1994-97').
