DENVER ? Hawai?i’s Tanisha Milca and Nevada’s Jordan McPherson have been named the Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively. This is the first career WAC Player of the Week honor for Milca and the second career honor for McPherson.
Milca, a senior outfielder from Kailua, O’ahu (Kailua) helped lead Hawai?i to its best start in program history, winning its first five games. In UH’s first action of the season, Milca, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, had team highs in average (.500), runs scored (6), hits (10), doubles (3), total bases (16), and on base percentage (.549). She also leads the team with four multiple-hit games and was one of two players on the UH squad to get at least one hit in the first five games of 2008. Milca also had a slugging percentage of .800. In the season opener against Kentucky on Feb. 14, she went 2-for-3 with a run scored, a RBI, and a sacrifice bunt that led to a run scored. In the first meeting against Long Beach State on Feb. 15 she was 3-for-4 with two runs scored, two RBI and hitting her first home run of the season. She followed that performance with a 2-for-3 game versus Central Florida on Feb. 15 with two runs scored.
McPherson, a senior from Simi Valley, Calif. (Royal), went 2-0 and pitched 14.2 innings with a 1.43 earned-run average as Nevada went 4-1 at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. McPherson started, pitched five innings and got the victory as the Wolf Pack scored its biggest win in school history, a 1-0 victory over No. 1 Arizona. McPherson gave up three hits in that game, walked just three and struck out five. McPherson also got the start and the win as Nevada beat No. 25 Oregon State in the tournament. She went six innings in that game, striking out three and walking two. For the weekend, McPherson gave up 10 hits, struck out 11 and walked just five in 14.2 innings. Opponents hit just .185 off of her.
Other hitter of the week nominees included: Caitlin Stiglich of Fresno State hit .300 with two home runs as the Bulldogs went 5-1 ... Regan Clark of Louisiana Tech hit .353 with six hits, earning all-tournament honors ... Sam Bias of Nevada hit .500 for the Wolf Pack with seven hits and two RBI ... Stephanie Herrera of New Mexico State hit .500 with four runs scored as the Aggies went 1-4 last week ... Amy Schaible of Utah State hit .357 as the Aggies went 2-2 in San Diego.
Other pitcher of the week nominees included: Morgan Melloh of Fresno State was 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA ... Courtney Baughman of Hawai?i was 3-0 for the Rainbow Wahine ... Krissi Oliver had a 0.50 ERA despite going 0-2 last week ... Kim Watson of New Mexico State went 0-3 with a 1.79 ERA ... Lindsey Benson of Utah State went 2-2 with two complete games and seven strikeouts for the Aggies.