United Athletic Conference

 

NM State's Hailey Tanori and Felicia De La Torre have been named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for March 15 through March 21.

 

Tanori, a redshirt freshman from Green Valley, Ariz., slashed .579/.579/.737 to power the Aggie offense last week as it scored 52 runs to finish with a 4-1 record at the GCU Invitational. Tanori went 11-for-19 with five RBIs while striking out just twice as she extended her current hit streak to 10 games. She also was a force on the base paths with five stolen bases on the week.

 

De La Torre, a redshirt freshman from West Covina, Calif., earned her first complete-game shutout of the year while also adding a trio of wins to her record last week. She was dominant against Southern Utah on Friday as she held the Thunderbirds scoreless, posting a season-high nine strikeouts in just five innings. On the week, De La Torre struck out a total of 16 batters while giving up just three runs in 12 innings pitched.

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Dixie State's Mikaela Thomson drove in seven runs on seven hits to lead the Trailblazers to a pair of wins over Weber State… Grand Canyon's Gianna Nicoletti went 8-for-16 at the plate last week, including a three-hit day against Southern Utah in which she added a stolen base… Seattle U's Cherise Silvan managed an astounding .700 batting average last week while finishing one triple shy of the cycle in the Redhawks' 5-2 win over Montana… Tarleton's Morgan Medford hit a team-high .429 last week as she sparked the offense in wins over UTEP and Texas Tech… Utah Valley's Rien Milliken hit a pair of home runs as she slashed .545/.643/1.091 to lead the Wolverines to a 4-1 record last week.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: Dixie State's Carissa Burgess tallied a complete-game victory over Weber State as she helped the Trailblazers to a pair of wins last week… Seattle U's Stefani Madrigal earned the complete-game victory while giving up no earned runs against Montana on Thursday… Tarleton's Tristan Bridges had a hand in all three of the Texans' wins last week, highlighted by a complete-game win over Big XII opponent Texas Tech on Saturday… Utah Valley's Devyn Cretz tabbed two complete-game wins last week, including matching a career-high eight strikeouts during a shutout win over Weber State.

 

This week's slate of games kicks off with 10 non-conference games before conference play gets underway. Tarleton opens things up today with a doubleheader against Incarnate Word. Utah Valley's week also starts Tuesday with back-to-back road matchups against Utah while Dixie State meets up with Southern Utah this evening. NM State's Tuesday includes a doubleheader with Portland State. Tarleton is back in action on Wednesday with a doubleheader set against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

 

WAC play officially starts on Friday with Seattle U hosting NM State while California Baptist heads to St. George, Utah, to battle with Dixie State. Lastly, Grand Canyon's conference schedule is headlined by a trio of home games against Utah Valley.

 

Dixie State's bats have been the hottest as it hoists the best batting average (.300) while Seattle U sits atop the league in earned run average (4.06). Tarleton's defense has been top-notch as they lead the conference in fielding percentage (.965). Individually, GCU's  Gianna Nicoletti has been on a tear to star the year, leading the conference in batting average (.494), hits (37) and runs scored (28). Dixie State's Mikaela Thomson leads the league in RBIs (26) and home runs (8). When it comes to extra-base hits, California Baptist's Makayla Jordan has hit the most doubles (9) while Grand Canyon's Kristin Fifield and Utah Valley's Basia Query share the lead for most triples hit with three each. Inside the circle, California Baptist's Kerisa Viramontes has the most strikeouts with 69 and fellow Lancer Gretchen Goldsmith holds the best ERA (2.89).

 

Grand Canyon Head Coach Ann Pierson tallied her 500th win at the helm of the Lopes softball program as the Lopes defeated Idaho State on March 19. Pierson came to Phoenix in 2004 and is amidst her 18th season leading Grand Canyon. She has led the Lopes to 30-plus wins in each of the last four full seasons. 

 

Seattle U's Madison Cathcart has been among the best to ever step to the plate in the WAC. Last week she placed herself in a tie for the most walks in WAC history when she recorded her 18th of the season and 138th career base on balls. Cathcart is also only one double shy of tying the all-time WAC record for doubles in a career.

 

In back-to-back games, California Baptist was able to find late-game magic as they walked off in both games of a doubleheader with Long Beach State. In the opener, Mia Alvarez connected on an infield hit to bring across Maile Olson for the game-winning run. Makayla Jordan was the hero in Game 2 as she knocked a hit into center field to bring in Samantha Demyon.

 

NM State concluded its week in an exciting fashion as they walked off twice on Sunday. The Aggies received some seventh inning heroism from Hailey Tanori to pull out a 2-1 victory over South Dakota. Tanori hit a two-RBI single to propel the Aggies past the Coyotes after falling behind 0-1 in the top of the first inning.

 

The Aggies' magic took an extra-inning the second time around as Ramsay Lopez hit a walk-off home run in the eighth inning to secure the victory over Toledo. With the pair of thrilling wins, the Aggies are now riding a six-game win streak. This is the longest win streak for NM State since winning six in a row in March 21-31 of 2018. 

 

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.