DENVER – New Mexico State’s Lacey Rother and Bakersfield’s Sydney Raeber have been named the Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 3-9. This is the first-ever honor for both.
Rother, a junior catcher from Long Beach, Calif., got a hit in each of the Aggies’ five games last weekend at the Hotel Encanto Invitational. She had two home runs on Sunday, including a game-winning grand slam against cross-border rival UTEP, helping the Aggies to an 8-6 win. She finished the weekend hitting .385 with three runs and five RBI while slugging .846.
Raeber, a sophomore outfielder and pitcher from Hanford, Calif., earned a pair of saves in four appearances last week. In the team’s first game against, a 1-0 shutout, she entered in the top of the seventh with runners on first and second, fanned two Flyers and induced a line out to earn the save. She also drove in the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly to centerfield. Raeber collected her second save of the year the following day against Dayton, throwing two perfect innings to close out the game. For the week, she posted a 2.17 ERA, allowing three runs on eight hits while striking out six. In 9.2 innings of work, she limited opponents to a .222 batting average.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Bakersfield’s Karissa Veiga hit .474 with three doubles and two RBI ... Camree Wartmann of Grand Canyon hit .400 with one double and one RBI ... Kansas City’s Katie Kelley hit .417 with three doubles and six RBI ... Bubba Morrow of Seattle U hit .500 with a double, a homer and six RBI.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: Grand Canyon’s Stephanie Pesqueira went 1-2 with a 3.50 ERA and eight strikeouts in 12.0 innings of work ... Katie Kelley of Kansas City went 1-1 with a 2.71 ERA and 17 strikeouts on the week ... New Mexico State’s McKayla McAdams went 1-0 with a 2.03 ERA and eight strikeouts in 10.1 innings of work.