DENVER – New Mexico State’s Tiare Jennings and Fresno State’s Mackenzie Oakes have been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 13-19. This is the first honor of the season and fourth of her career for Jennings and the first of the season and fourth overall for Oakes.
Jennings, a senior utility player from Turlock, Calif. (Pitman HS), led the Aggies to a 5-2 record last week. She hit .600 with 12 hits, two doubles, four home runs, five walks, 10 runs scored and an amazing 18 RBI over the seven games. She posted a 1.300 slugging percentage and a .654 on-base percentage for the week. Jennings set the New Mexico State single-game record with eight RBI in a win over UTEP, including a walk-off grand slam to end the game. She went 3-for-3 at the plate and reached base in all five of her at-bats with two walks, a single and a double to go along with the game-ending slam. She also hit two home runs in the same inning against Weber State and hit a homer against No. 24 Nebraska to account for both Aggie runs. With grand slam against UTEP, Jennings moved into second place all-time on the Aggie home run list (44).
Oakes, a senior from Bakersfield, Calif. (Stockdale HS), went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and held opponents to a .049 batting average in two appearances last week. She threw her third career no-hitter in Sunday’s 8-0, six-inning victory over Cal State Fullerton, which was the 66th no-hitter in program history. In her win against the Titans, Oakes induced 14 ground-ball outs, including six that came right back to her in the circle, and had four strikeouts. Not one ball reached the outfield in her flawless performance. In addition to her no-hitter, she also recorded another shutout the day before against Santa Clara in a 7-0 victory. Oakes nearly recorded a no-hitter in that contest, as she didn’t give up a hit until the sixth inning and only allowed two hits in the game. In both of her starts last week, Oakes posted four strikeouts and just one walk in the pair of victories that improved her record to 3-0 this year and lowered her ERA to 0.78.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Delaney Willard of Brigham Young hit .545 with nine RBI and four homers last week ... Hawai‘i’s Sarah Robinson hit .438 with two home runs and 10 RBI as the Rainbow Wahine remained undefeated on the season … Louisiana Tech’s Kendra Harmon hit .385 with five hits … Lauren Lastrapes of Nevada hit .368 with three doubles, a homer and four RBI on the week … San Jose State’s Michelle Cox hit .444 with eight hits and a triple … Kelley Kaneshiro of Utah State hit .625 with five hits, one home run and six RBI on the week.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: Brigham Young’s Hannah Howell posted a 3-1 record with 19 strikeouts … Stephanie Ricketts of Hawai‘i went 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 20 strikeouts .... Louisiana Tech’s Michelle Jones went 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA on the week … Mallary Darby of Nevada went 2-1 with a 3.56 ERA and 11 strikeouts ... New Mexico State’s Celisha Walker went 2-0 with a save and 10 strikeouts on the week ... Shelbi Tyteca of Utah State went 2-1 with seven strikeouts.