United Athletic Conference

 

Seattle U will host the 2021 WAC Softball Tournament. All eligible teams will advance to the double-elimination tournament, which will be held at Logan Field on May 13-15. This is the third time the Redhawks have hosted the event, as they did so in 2014 and 2016.

 

For the second year in a row, Seattle U is the preseason favorite to win the 2021 Western Athletic Conference softball title in a vote of the league's seven head coaches, who could not vote for their own team.

 

The Redhawks edged out the top spot in the preseason poll with 32 points as they collected four first-place votes. NM State was just behind them in second with 31 points, garnering the remaining three first-place votes. Utah Valley finished in third with 25 points while California Baptist slid into fourth, tallying 20 points. Grand Canyon landed in fifth with newcomer Dixie State taking sixth as they earned 19 points and 12 points, respectively. Tarleton rounded out the poll with eight points.

 

The Preseason All-WAC Team, as selected by the coaches, was also announced. The Preseason All-WAC Team includes last year's WAC Preseason Player of the Year and WAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year as NM State's Nikki Butler and Grand Canyon's Ryan Denhart each earned a selection. Along with Butler and Denhart, four other WAC Player of the Week award winners are included among this year's All-WAC team. Utah Valley's Devyn Cretz and Abby Doughty, NM State's Matalasi Faapito and California Baptist's Katelyn Mangrello each earned at least one player of the week award during the shortened 2020 season.

 

Joining those six on the Preseason All-WAC Team was Madison Cathcart and Ally Choate of Seattle U; Kaylee Dietrich of Grand Canyon; Carissa Burgess and Hannah Hughbanks of Dixie State; Brittany Galvez of California Baptist; Destiny Crumpley and Georgia Capell of Tarleton.

 

WAC teams will have plenty of chances to play underdog this year as they will play a total of 29 games against teams ranked in the preseason top-25. Of those 29, WAC programs have 17 matchups with top-10 schools, including four against No. 2 Washington and six against No. 3 Arizona. 

 

The first week alone features five games versus top-25 teams. On Friday, Dixie State kicks things off with a matchup against No. 2 Washington while Seattle U travels to Tempe, Ariz. to take on No. 16 Arizona State. Saturday sees Grand Canyon play host to No. 10 Oregon. Meanwhile, on Valentine's Day, Dixie State has its second meeting with No. 2 Washington and Tarleton squares off with No. 4 Oklahoma.

 

 

On Friday, March 6, NM State took down No. 17 Arizona State when as they competed in the ASU Tournament in Tempe, Ariz. Behind a combined shutout effort from Analise De La Roca and Felicia De La Torre, the Aggies took down the Sun Devils 2-0. In 5.1 innings, De La Roca faced 24 batters and gave up only four hits.

 

Grand Canyon senior Brianna Aguilar reached 200 strikeouts for her career over the weekend. The Tucson, Ariz., native achieved the mark with her second strikeout against Montana on Friday, March 6. 

 

With a pair of home wins over Michigan State, California Baptist earned the sweep over the Big Ten foe. The Lancers won 3-2 in eight innings in Game 1 and dominated Game 2, winning 9-4. Senior pitcher Kerisa Viramontes struck out seven Spartans and gave up only four hits as she went all eight innings to earn the win in the first matchup. In the second game, the Lancers bats came alive as Amanda Argomaniz led the way with three RBIs.

 

On Sunday, March 1, NM State found themselves down eight runs after the top of the first inning against Houston at the Boyd Gaming Classic in Las Vegas. The Aggies went on to score 10 unanswered runs, five of them coming in the bottom of the first, to take the game 10-8. Freshman Matalasi Faapito led the charge with two hits and four RBIs while also throwing 6 1/3 innings to earn the win in the circle.

 

 

For only the second time in school history, Seattle U took down a nationally-ranked opponent. On Sunday, Feb. 23, the Redhawks defeated No. 18 Missouri 3-1. A three-run homer off the bat of junior Bailey Thompson in the first inning gave SU the early lead and eventually the win. Pitchers Carley Nance and Shi Smith combined to allow only one run on four hits in the victory. 

 

With a loaded non-conference schedule, this is already the fifth matchup with a Top 25 team for the Redhawks this season. They also took on No. 3 Oklahoma on and came ever so close to pulling off the upset as they fell 2-1.

 

The top returning stat leaders in the WAC from last year include:

 

Category	Name, School	Statistic/'20 Rank
Batting Average	Abby Doughty, UVU	.456/1st
Slugging Pct	Ramsay Lopez, NMSU	.981/1st
On Base Pct.	Ramsay Lopez, NMSu	.579/1st
Runs	Gianna Nicoletti, GCU	20/1st
Hits	Gianna Nicoletti, GCU	30/1st
RBI	Matalasi Faapito, NMSU	23/1st
Doubles	Nikki Butler, NMSU	1st/6
Triples	Hope Banales, NMSU	2/T-1st
	Abby Doughty, UVU	2/T-1st
	Stephanie Merwin, SU	2/T-1st
Home Runs	Ramsay Lopez, NMSU	9/1st
Total Bases	Nikki Butler, NMSU	53/1st
Stolen Bases	Gianna Nicoletti, GCU	6/2nd
ERA	Stefanie Madrigal, SU	2.22/1st
Wins	Shi Smith, SU	6/T-1st
Saves	Devyn Cretz, UVU	3/T-1st
	Shi Smith, SU	3/T-1st
Strikeouts	Shi Smith, SU	91/1st
Innings Pitched	Matalasi Faapito	69.0/1st
Opponent BA	Shi Smith, SU	.220/1st