DENVER – Missouri-Kansas City’s Katie Kelley and Bakersfield’s Kelsie Monroe have been named the Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 16-22. This is the first WAC Hitter of the Week honor of the season and second of her career for Kelley, and the first-ever Pitcher of the Week honor for Monroe.
Kelley, a junior from Coweta, Okla., had multiple hits in each of the Kangaroos’ four games last weekend to post a .786 batting average, a .786 on-base percentage and an astounding 2.000 slugging percentage. For the week, she had five doubles, four home runs and eight RBIs. Kelley became the first Kangaroo ever to homer in three consecutive games – and, ultimately, four consecutive games – and set a program mark for consecutive games with an RBI (5), as well as doubles over a four-game span (5). She leads the league in hitting (.426), doubles (8) and total bases (43).
Monroe, a senior from Los Banos, Calif., threw a complete-game shutout of Pacific in her only appearance last week for a 0.00 ERA. She scattered four hits – all singles – over seven innings while striking out five and walking two, holding the Tigers to a .167 batting average. Monroe now has 33 complete games and four shutouts on her career and with 23 career wins is two shy of the CSUB Division I record (24).
Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Grand Canyon’s Camree Wartman hit .333 with a double, three homers, three sacrifice flies and 12 RBIs in eight games last week ... Kelsey Dodd of New Mexico State hit .429 with two doubles, a home run and four RBIs as the Aggies went 3-2 last week ... Seattle U’s Bubba Morrow hit .500 with two homers and four RBIs over four games last week.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: Grand Canyon’s Taylor Nowlin went 1-2 with a 4.88 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 18.2 innings of work ... Makayla McAdams of New Mexico State went 2-0 with a 2.33 ERA with five strikeouts in 12.0 innings pitched ... Seattle U’s Mandie Sugita went 1-0 with a 2.55 ERA and seven strikeouts over 11.0