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DENVER - Grand Canyon's Sierra Smith and Utah Valley's Lauren Frailey have been named the Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for April 24-30. This is the first-ever honor for Smith and the third honor of the season and of her career for Frailey.
Smith, a sophomore third baseman from Waddell, Ariz., had a hit in all three games, including hits in each of her first five at-bats during the series as Grand Canyon captured a share of the WAC regular-season title, winning two of three games against the defending champs NM State on the road. Smith hit .600 with a 1.300 slugging percentage and a .667 on-base percentage. She posted a double, two home runs, one walk and 12 RBIs on the week. In the series opener, Smith went 4-for-4 with a double, a home run and a GCU Division I single-game record eight RBIs. In the series finale, the Lopes were trailing 10-9 in the sixth inning when Smith hit perhaps the biggest homer of her career, a three-run bomb that gave GCU the lead for good and secured the share of the WAC regular-season title.
Frailey, a junior right-hander from Tooele, Utah, went 2-0 with a 3.50 ERA. In 10.0 innings of work she scattered 13 hits, while allowing just five earned runs en route to earning a pair of key WAC wins over UMKC to help the Wolverines earn the No. 2 seed for the WAC Tournament. In her first win of the series, Frailey scattered 10 hits while giving up just three earned runs and striking out two on the way to recording her 11th complete game of the season. She then followed that up on Sunday by giving up just two runs on three hits in the series finale to help Utah Valley record the series sweep. With the pair of victories, Frailey improved to 11-8 on the year.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: CSU Bakersfield's Kaylynn Burt hit .400 with a triple, two home runs and four RBIs on the week ... Maegan Rollow of UMKC hit .600 with one homer and two RBIs last week ... NM State's Victoria Castro hit .535 with 1 double, three home runs and 13 RBIs ... Savannah Loomis of Seattle U hit .364 with a double, two homers and five RBIs ... Utah Valley's Brittney Vansway hit .545 with a double, two home runs and four RBIs last week.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: CSU Bakersfield's Lyndsay Klimenko went 1-1 with a 2.90 ERA and two strikeouts over 9.2 innings last week ... Samaria Diaz of NM State went 1-0 with a 6.00 ERA and one strikeout in 7.0 innings of work ... Seattle U's Andie Larkins went 1-1 with 2.21 ERA and eight strikeouts over 12.2 innings.