United Athletic Conference

 

Seattle U turned in three impressive performances last week to hoist the WAC Tournament trophy and earn the WAC's automatic birth to the 2021 Division I Women's College World Series. The second seeded Redhawks became just the second program in WAC Tournament history to go unbeaten with wins over three different schools en route to the title.

 

To open the tournament, Seattle U defeated Grand Canyon 5-4 behind Carley Nance's dominant performance on offense and in the circle. Nance smashed a three-run home run while also striking out six batters and giving up just two hits across 4.2 innings pitched.

 

On Friday, the Redhawks eliminated Utah Valley with 5-1 win over the Wolverines. Nance anchored SU once again, earning the complete game victory in the circle in addition to hitting a pair of home runs.

 

The host Redhawks concluded their tournament run with a 7-5 victory over NM State in the championship game. Cherise Silvan and Bailey Thompson led the way for the Redhawks as the duo combined for five RBIs in Saturday's finale.

 

Nance also became the only player in WAC history to be named WAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player twice. Joining her on the All-Tournament team was Seattle U's Thompson, Mekenzie Madokoro, Alyson Matriotti and Olivia Viggiano, NM State's Nikki Butler, Ramsay Lopez and Chloe Rivas, Utah Valley's Brooke Carter and Emery Nielson and Grand Canyon's Gianna Nicoletti.

 

Seattle U will face Michigan in the Seattle Regional in the NCAA Championship this Friday after going 3-0 last week to win the WAC Tournament title. The Redhawks tournament run was capped off by a 7-5 victory over NM State in the championship game on Saturday.

 

The Redhawks (29-19) will face the Huskies (36-6) at 5 p.m. (PT) this Friday, May 21. Meanwhile, host and No. 16 Washington (41-11) will face Portland State (15-24) on the other side of the bracket in the double elimination regional.

 

The Redhawks are led by first team All-WAC honoree Ally Choate, who finished third in the WAC in batting average (.375) and sixth in on-base percentage (.442), and first team All-WAC and WAC Tournament Team selection Bailey Thompson, who finished the year batting .333 with 45 runs batted in, 14 doubles and nine home runs. WAC Tournament MVP Carley Nance leads Seattle U in the circle with a WAC-best 2.84 earned-run average. She is 10-5 on the season with 61 strikeouts. Stefanie Madrigal and Shi Smith make up the rest of the Redhawks' three-headed pitching monster as Madrigal finished second in the WAC in ERA (3.02) while Smith finished third at 3.23.

 

The Big Ten regular season and tournament champion Wolverines are led by junior Lexie Blair, who finished with a .411 batting average, 15 doubles, 24 RBIs and a .660 slugging percentage. Lou Allan also plays a big part in the Michigan offense as she heads to the Seattle Regional batting .385 with 10 home runs and 42 RBIs.

 

The Redhawks saw both Portland State and Washington earlier this season at the Husky Classic in Seattle. Seattle U took down Portland State twice while it fell to Washington in a pair of matchups.

 

Seattle U closed out the season with the league's best overall batting average at .299 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 (.399), hits (63) and home runs (16). Dixie State's Hannah Hughbanks hit 19 doubles to pace WAC hitters. Utah Valley's Linnah Rebolledo came away with the most runs scored this season with 46. NM State's Nikki Butler and Seattle U's Bailey Thompson each drove in 45 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 (2.84).

 

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 led in runs scored (21). Dixie State's Hannah Hughbanks 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.