Utah's Ashley Smuda
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Softball Weekly Release
Feb. 12, 2008
MWC Softball Weekly Release
MWC NOTES
Starting Success
Mountain West softball teams went 23-4-1 in its first week of play. UNLV knocked off #3/#2 Arizona State and #11/#14 Washington, while Colorado State defeated #20/#23 Oregon State. BYU and Utah each went 5-0 at the BYU/UVS Red Desert Classic in St. George, Utah, while San Diego State posted a 4-1 record at the Cathedral City Classic in Palm Springs, Calif. New Mexico also fared well, posting a 2-1 mark against visiting Evansville.
In The Rankings
BYU, San Diego State and UNLV are all receiving votes in the USA Today/NFCA poll this week, while the Rebels are also ranked tied for No. 23 in the ESPN.com/USA Collegiate Softball poll. It marks UNLV's first-ever appearance in the top 25 national poll. BYU, San Diego State and Utah are also receiving votes in the ESPN.com/USA Collegiate Softball poll.
MWC Team Quick Hits
BYU
After winning all five games during the BYU/UVS Red Desert Classic, the Cougars are 5-0, the same exact start to last season when the Cougars were named the MWC Champions...Freshman Jessica Purcell started her collegiate career with a long ball over the right-field fence to help the Cougars finish 4-1 over Northern Colorado...The starting shortstop is now batting .444 with eight hits and a perfect fielding percentage...In five games, the Cougars' pitching staff kept its opponents to only five earned runs and one unearned run.
Colorado State
Colorado State earned a 4-1 record over the weekend, its best five-game start to a season under Head Coach Mary Yori...In addition, the Rams beat No. 20 Oregon to open the season, marking the the third win in three seasons against a ranked opponent for the Rams...Last season, the Rams beat No. 11 Cal 2-0 and in 2006 they beat No. 18 Oregon 6-1...Two players, senior Julia Kloppe and sophomore Robyn Mask recorded five RBI over the weekend...Kloppe led the team with a .500 batting average in four games, going 7-for-14 with two doubles and one home run., while Mask hit .400 to open the season, going 6-for-15 from the plate with one home run, one double and two runs scored.
New Mexico
New Mexico went 2-1 in the opening weekend after taking two of three from Evansville...The Lobos hit .347 against the Purple Aces with eight doubles and five home runs...UNM won its first season opening game since 2001...Senior Lindsey Elcess hit .500 in three games after going 4-for-8 at the plate...She moved into fourth place on the all-time school home run list with 20 career homers and jumped into eight on the all-time doubles list with 30...The Lobos hit five home runs as a team during the opening weekend including two by Elcess.
San Diego State
SDSU defeated Cal Poly, 3-0, in nine innings for its eighth consecutive season-opening victory and 11th in Head Coach Kathy Van Wyk's 12 seasons...Three of the Aztecs' four wins over the weekend were shutouts, one each by senior LHP Christina Ross, freshman RHP Samantha Beasley and freshman RHP Brooke Petty...SDSU's pitching staff went 4-1 with a 0.59 ERA in 35 2/3 innings...LF/CF Tamani Wells recorded two doubles and five RBI over the five games last weekend, well on pace to break last season's career-high total of six doubles and 16 RBI, respectively...Junior Syracuse transfer CF/LF Tonye McCorkle leads the team with a .389 batting average...C/3B Erin Floros batted .375 with one homer and six RBI in her first weekend back after missing most of the 2007 campaign with a torn ACL.
UNLV
UNLV opened the 2008 season with a 3-1-1 record after picking up wins over Texas Tech, #3/2 Arizona State and #11/14 Washington...The win over ASU was the first for UNLV since a 5-0 victory in Las Vegas on March 13, 1990, and improved the overall series record
to 5-17...Jaci Hull registered a .429 batting average with six hits last weekend as four of
those hits cleared the fences of Eller Media Stadium...Two homeruns were grand slams as she contributed 11 RBI and six runs to the Rebel offense.
Utah
Utah began the season 5-0 for the first time since 1985...The Utes began the year 9-0 that season...Head Coach Amy Hogue began her tenure as Utah's head coach on Friday against Wisconsin with a win...She is the seventh head coach of the Utes...Sophomore pitcher Ashley Smuda played in all five of the Utes' games this weekend, only allowing two runs...After allowing three hits in the first inning of her first start, she settled down and only allowed five more the rest of the weekend.
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