DENVER - Grand Canyon's Camree Wartman and Bakersfield's Kelsie Monroe have been named the Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for April 13-19. This is the first-ever honor for Wartman and the second honor of the season and of her career for Monroe.
Wartman, a sophomore second baseman from Riverton, Utah, hit .600 with a double, two home runs, five runs scored and an astounding 12 RBIs in a series sweep of Utah Valley last week. She posted a 1.300 slugging percentage, a .636 on-base percentage and was error free in the field over the three games. Wartman, who had at least one hit in each of the games, opened the series with a double, a grand slam and six RBIs in a 16-7 five-inning win. In the series finale, she hit another grand slam and tallied five RBIs. With her 12 RBIs on the week, she moved her total to a conference-best 21 RBIs in WAC games.
Monroe, a senior from Los Banos, Calif., went 1-1 with a 0.00 ERA and 11 strikeouts over 14.0 innings last week. In two appearances, she held New Mexico State, which entered the series ranked in the top 10 nationally in batting average, slugging percentage, scoring, home runs and on-base percentage, to just 10 hits, only one of which was an extra base hit (a double), a .200 batting average and one unearned run. In the first game of the series, Monroe took the hard luck loss, allowing one unearned run on six hits while striking out four. In the series finale, she picked up her sixth shutout of the season, handing the Aggies their first WAC loss in nearly a year and shutting out NM State for just the third time this season. She struck out seven in the victory. During the week, Monroe lowered her WAC-leading ERA from 2.72 to 2.47 and her opponent batting average from .233 to .230.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Missouri-Kansas City's Brooke Parker hit .600 with three stolen bases last week ... Rachel Rodriguez of New Mexico State hit .429 with a double and two stolen bases last week ... Utah Valley's Erin Romero hit .444 with one RBI on the week.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: Grand Canyon's Taylor Nowlin went 2-0 with a 4.00 ERA and nine strikeouts over 7.0 innings last week ... Katie Kelley of Missouri-Kansas City went 1-0 with a 1.40 ERA and three strikeouts in one appearance last week ... Dallas McBride of New Mexico State went 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA and 14 strikeouts in three appearances and 14.0 innings of work.