Complete Release in PDF
GRAND CANYON'S SMITH, UTAH VALLEY'S FRAILEY NAMED WAC ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
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.
GRAND CANYON, NM STATE SHARE WAC REGULAR-SEASON TITLE
After finishing the conference regular season with identical 11-4 records, Grand Canyon and NM State shared the WAC regular-season title. For the Lopes, it was their second title in four years in the league. For the Aggies, it was their fourth regular-season title and third in a row. NM State joined the WAC in the 2005-06 school year.
SEEDS SET FOR WAC TOURNAMENT
With the conclusion of regular-season play, the seeds have been set for next week's WAC Tournament in Las Cruces, N.M. NM State is the No. 1 seed. Utah Valley and Seattle U had 7-8 records, but the Wolverines earned the No. 2 seed since they had the tiebreaker by winning the series over the Redhawks, which got the No. 3 seed. The 7-8 record and No. 2 seed are both program bests for Utah Valley since joining the WAC. UMKC is the No. 4 seed with a 5-10 record and CSU Bakersfield is the No. 5 seed with a 4-11 record in WAC play.
NM STATE'S HORTON BREAKS THREE WAC RECORDS IN LEAGUE PLAY
NM State sophomore Kelsey Horton broke or tied three WAC records for WAC games only. The records are listed below, along with the previous record holder.
Batting average .558 .535, Nina Lindenberg, Fresno State, 1996
Slugging percentage 1.258 1.050, Jessica Iwata, Hawai‘i, 2010
Home runs per game 0.60 tied with Fiana Finau, NM State, 2015
Horton also broke into the Top 10 in these categories:
RBIs per game 1.47 T-5th
Home runs 9 T-8th
Hits per game 1.60 T-10th
CSUB'S KLIMENKO MOVES INTO THIRD PLACE IN CAREER STARTS
With two starts last weekend, CSU Bakersfield senior hurler Lyndsay Klimenko moved her career total to 53, good for third place in CSUB's Division I history. She needs 62 to claim second place. Klimenko also has 95 career appearances, second-most of any ‘Runner. The school record is 112 (Kelsie Monroe, 2013-15).
UTAH VALLEY'S VANSWAY SETS PROGRAM SEASON RBI RECORD
On April 29, Utah Valley senior third baseman Brittney Vansway became the program single-season RBI record holder with 49, surpassing Amanda Perez's previous record of 48 set in 2010. Vansway now has 51. On April 7 against CSU Bakersfield, she became the program career RBI leader with a four-RBI outing bringing her career total to 149, passing the prior record of 148 held by Perez (2009-12). Vansway now has a 158 RBIs on her career.
CSUB'S BURT BREAKS PROGRAM SEASON STOLEN BASE RECORD
With a stolen base in the series finale at Seattle U on April 29, CSU Bakersfield junior Kaylynn Burt moved her season total to 16, breaking the program single-season Division I record set last season by Alex Simmons. Burt has also been hit by a pitch 11 times on the season, second-most in a single Division I season at CSUB.