DENVER – Fresno State’s Brooke Ortiz and Louisiana Tech’s Michelle Jones have been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for April 2-8. This is the first-ever honor for both.
Ortiz, a sophomore infielder from Lodi, Calif., hit .533 (8-for-15) with a double and a triple in five games last week, to help Fresno State sweep the series from Utah State. Ortiz scored six runs, which accounted for 25 percent of Fresno State’s 24 runs on the week, and also had three RBI. She drew three walks, had a .733 slugging percentage and .611 on-base percentage during the week. In a doubleheader against UNLV, she went 5-for-7 with a double, one RBI and two runs scored. Ortiz had a two-run triple in the 8-0 win over Utah State in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader and scored two of Fresno State’s three runs in the 4-0 win in the series-opening victory over the Aggies. Ortiz has hit safely in each of the last six games and moved into the team lead with her .350 batting average.
Jones, a junior from Scurry, Texas, pitched a pair of complete-game wins over New Mexico State last weekend, leading Louisiana Tech to a three-game sweep of the defending WAC champions. Jones went 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA while limiting the Aggies to .143 team batting average. In the first game of the series, she limited NM State to four hits and just two runs, one of which was earned. Jones took a shutout into the seventh inning before surrendering two runs, only one earned. She returned to the circle Saturday and tossed a complete-game, three-hit shutout, allowing only six base runners in the game. It broke of string of 78 straight WAC games (both regular season and tournament) that NM State had scored at least one run, dating back to May 3, 2008.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Alex Aguirre of Hawai‘i hit .364 with one homer and four RBI ... Louisiana Tech’s Melanie Goff hit .400 with one homer and five RBI on the week ... Lauren Lastrapes of Nevada hit .429 with one RBI ... New Mexico State’s Malena Padilla hit .333 with a double and one stolen base on the week ... Cheryl Freitas of San Jose State hit .400 with a triple and three RBI last week ... Kelley Kaneshiro of Utah State hit .444 with two home runs and three RBI on the week.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: Hannah Howell of Brigham Young went 1-1 with a save and 11 strikeouts last week ... Fresno State’s Michelle Moses went 3-1 with a 1.88 ERA and 15 strikeouts ... Stephanie Ricketts of Hawai‘i went 2-0 with a save, 13 strikeouts and a 1.17 ERA on the week ... Nevada’s Karlyn Jones went 1-0 with a 2.55 ERA in two appearances on the week ... Krysta Donisthorpe of New Mexico State posted a 1.62 ERA with nine strikeouts last week ... San Jose State’s Amanda Pridmore went 2-1 with a 0.88 ERA and seven strikeouts on the week ... Dani Chaplin of Utah State went 1-1 with 11 strikeouts last week.