THIS WEEK IN THE MOUNTAIN WEST
The Mountain West Conference Softball Championship will take place May
12-14 at SDSU Softball Stadium on the campus of San Diego State University.
The opening game will see fourth-seeded Utah taking on No. 5 seed New
Mexico at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 12. No. 3 Colorado State and No. 6
San Diego State will be the other opening round game on Thursday at 2 p.m.
BYU and UNLV will receive opening round byes. The Cougars will play the
winner of Utah and New Mexico at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, while the Rebels
will go against the winner of Colorado State and San Diego State Thursday at 7 p.m.
The Mountain West Conference Softball Championship game will be
Saturday, May 14, at 4:30 p.m. PST with the winner receiving an automatic
bid to the 2005 NCAA Softball Championship.
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE QUICK HITS BYU
BYU went 3-1 last week, including a sweep over conference rival Utah...In this week's NCAA statistics, senior Lauren-Watson-Perry is tied for seventh in runs scored (1.00 per game) and 13th in batting average (.438)...Juniors Ashlyn Russell and Ianeta Le'i also appear in the NCAA statistics, with Russell ranking 10th in home runs per game (0.32), and Le'i 24th in RBI (50 total, 0.98 per game)...BYU will receive a first round bye in this week's MWC Championship and play the winner of the Utah/New Mexico game at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
COLORADO STATE
Colorado State went 0-4 last week vs. UNLV and San Diego State...Junior Jennifer Gardner and sophomore Brittany Huerta both reached the 100 hit mark for their career last week...Gardner went 5-for-11 in four games and now has 104 career hits, while Huerta had a hit and sits at 100 career hits...Junior righthander Genevieve Kelly needs just three more strikeouts to move into third place on the CSU career charts...She currently sits in fourth place with 216 career K's...The Rams will take on MWC Tournament host San Diego State in first-round action at 2 p.m. on Thursday.
NEW MEXICO
The Lobos went 1-3 in MWC play last weekend...The Lobos game two win at San Diego State on Friday was their first road win of the season...Junior Kristina Schmallen hit .500 (5-for-10) over the weekend with one double and one RBI...Schmallen is currently batting .352 on the season and is on a six-game hit streak entering this week's MWC Championship...Sophomore Liz Young hit .300 (3-for-10) with a double, her first UNM career home run and three RBI last weekend...UNM takes on Utah in the first game of the MWC Championship on Thursday at 11:30 a.m.
SAN DIEGO STATE
San Diego State went 3-1 in conference play last week, including a sweep of Colorado State...Seniors Erin Mahoney and Lacey Craft came up big vs. CSU on SDSU's Senior Day...Mahoney went 4-for-8 with an RBI, stolen base and four putouts, while Craft picked up a pair of RBI and scored three runs...The Aztec freshmen accounted for 18 of SDSU's 31 hits, eight of 13 runs, six of 10 RBI and the lone home run last week...San Diego State had a .197 batting average in MWC play heading into last weekend, but batted .295 with 31 hits, 10 RBI and scored 13 runs last week...SDSU takes on Colorado State in the first round of MWC Tournament play at 2 p.m. on Thursday.
UNLV
UNLV swept Colorado State and New Mexico last weekend...UNLV's 41 wins this season are the third highest win total in the program's history...The Rebels' 17 conference wins doubled their previous best league win total of eight...Senior righthander Jacque Kerrigan's start in game one vs. New Mexico on Sunday moved her into the No. 1 position in UNLV's record book for career appearances with 163...She is also currently in second place in career games started (129), complete games (85), innings pitched (830.2) and strikeouts (645)....Kerrigan is also the MWC career leader in wins, appearances, games started, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched and strikeouts...Freshman Marissa Nichols has broken UNLV single-season marks in runs scored (62) and stolen bases (33) and is second in batting average (.440), hits (84), doubles (16), triples (eight), home runs (15) and slugging percentage (.843)...The Rebels will take on the winner of the Colorado State/San Diego State game at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
UTAH
Utah went 2-2 last week, including non-conference wins over Florida State and Utah Valley State...Sophomore Devina Quintero hit a team-best .538 (7-for-12) at the plate last week, boosting her overall batting average to .309...Junior righthanders Brianna Gourdin and Lindsie Nielsen both tallied their first saves of the season last week...Freshman Diana Phillips batted a team-best .411 in conferene play...Freshman Meghan Crouse is currently riding a six-game hitting streak...Utah takes on New Mexico in the first game of the MWC Tournament on Thursday at 11:30 a.m.
