United Athletic Conference

 

Utah Valley's Basia Query and Devyn Cretz have been named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for May 3 through May 9.

 

Query, a senior from Henderson, Nev., helped the Wolverines earn their first series sweep of the season as she hit .625 to go along with a 1.125 slugging percentage. Query drove in six runs on five hits, including a three-RBI outing on Saturday to lead UVU to a 10-8 victory. The senior also became Utah Valley's all-time hits leader with hit number 202 with a home run in her final plate appearance of her home career.

 

Cretz, a senior from Corona, Calif., collected a win and a save for the Wolverines last week in UVU's series against Tarleton. On the week, she finished the week with a 0.84 earned-run average and five strikeouts across 8.1 innings. Friday, Cretz pitched her 30th complete game of her career in series-opening win. She also earned her WAC-best fourth save of the season on Saturday. 

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Grand Canyon's Kristin Fifield went 5-for-9 at the plate last week, including a pair of home runs and five RBIs… NM State's Kayla Bowen smashed a pair of home runs to help the Aggies secure the WAC regular season title… Seattle U's Madison Cathcart finished the week with a .556 batting average as she managed three doubles, one home run and five RBIs.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: California Baptist's Kerisa Viramontes was dominant in the Lancer win on­ Friday as she struck out nine Aggie batters and did not allow a single run across seven innings… Grand Canyon's Lexy Coons earned a complete-game victory as she gave up just two runs on Saturday against Seattle U… NM State's Felicia De La Torre struck out seven and allowed just three hits across seven total innings against California Baptist… Seattle U's Shi Smith finished the week with a 2.10 ERA in a pair of outings against Grand Canyon.

 

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

 

NM State is the top seed after posting a 14-4 record to claim its seventh WAC regular season title in program history. The Aggies are led by Nikki Butler, who hit .453 in WAC play with a pair doubles, eight home runs and 25 RBIs. Meanwhile, Matalasi Faapito hit .407 with four doubles, six home runs and 11 RBIs in WAC play. Faapito also led the Aggies in the circle with a 8-0 record in WAC play.

 

Seattle U is the No. 2 seed after finishing the season with a 13-5 mark. The Redhawks are led by senior catcher Bailey Thompson, who hit .412 with six doubles, five home runs and 17 RBIs in WAC games. Fellow senior Ally Choate hit .446 with two doubles, one triple and three RBIs. In the circle, Carley Nance led Seattle U with a 4-1 record and a WAC-best earned-run average of 1.67 in WAC games.

 

Grand Canyon earned the No. 3 seed as they closed out the season with a win over Seattle U to finish with a 8-9 WAC record. The Lopes are led by Kristin Fifield, who hit .388 with five home runs and 14 RBIs while Anjolee Aguilar-Beaucage hit .341 with four doubles against WAC opponents. In the circle, Jacie Hambrick finished the conference season with a 2.78 ERA.

 

The fourth seed went to Utah Valley, which finished with an 8-10 record in WAC play. The Wolverines are led by Jade Miller, who hit .417 with five doubles in WAC play. Linnah Rebolledo hit .327 with three triples and 15 RBIs, while Siena Sandoval hit .314 with four doubles and four homers. In the circle, Devyn Cretz went 6-3 with a save and 49 strikeouts in WAC games.

 

The tournament begins on Thursday, May 13, with the first game at 4 p.m. local time. All games will be shown live on ESPN+. International viewers can watch on the WAC Digital Network at www.wacigitalnetwork.com.

 

Seattle U closed out the regular season with the league's best overall batting average at .298 while also posting the top earned run average at 3.30. Meanwhile, Tarleton turned in the top fielding percentage on the year (.968). Individually, NM State's Matalasi Faapito led the conference in batting average (.400) and home runs (16). Dixie State's Hannah Hughbanks led the league with 62 hits while her 19 doubles also paced WAC hitters. Utah Valley's Linnah Rebolledo came away with the most runs scored this season with 44. Dixie State's Mikaela Thomson and Seattle U's Bailey Thompson each have driven in 42 runs to lead the WAC in RBIs. When it comes to extra-base hits, Seattle U's Olivia Viggiano finished with seven triples to pace the league. Inside the circle, California Baptist's Kerisa Viramontes has the most strikeouts with 153 and Seattle U's Carley Nance holds the best ERA (2.93).

 

In WAC play only, NM State hitters succeeded at a .330 clip to lead the way while Seattle U pitchers combined for a 2.38 ERA to pace the conference and the Redhawks' fielding percentage of .975 led all league teams. Individually, NM State's Nikki Butler held the top batting average (.456) while also leading the league in home runs (10) and RBIs (28). Butler also finished tied with Seattle U's Ally Choate for the lead in hits (26). Meanwhile, NM State's Ramsay Lopez in runs scored (21). Dixie State's Hannah Hughbank had seven doubles to lead in that category. Seattle U's Olivia Viggiano had the most triples with five against WAC opponents. California Baptist's Kerisa Viramontes struck out the most WAC batters at 61 while Seattle U's Carley Nance maintained a 1.99 ERA to lead the conference.

 

NM State redshirt freshman Matalasi Faapito pitched the first Aggie no-hitter since May 20, 2011, as she led the Aggies to an 8-0 win over Tarleton on April 16. In the victory, Faapito struck out five Texans and did not walk any batters.

 

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.

 

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. 

 

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.

 

On Jan. 14, the WAC announced the addition of five new schools in the upcoming years. Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin and Southern Utah were all offered and accepted membership invitations. With the addition, the WAC will have six schools in Texas, more than any other conference in the country, and three schools in Utah, also a national best. The four Texas schools will join the league on July 1, 2021 and Southern Utah will follow 365 days later, officially joining the WAC on July 1, 2022.