April 9, 2012
RUSTON - Louisiana Tech junior Michelle Jones was named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for April 2-8, announced the league office today.
Jones, a junior from Scurry, Texas, pitched a pair of complete-game wins over New Mexico State last weekend, leading Louisiana Tech to a three-game sweep of the defending WAC champions. Jones went 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA while limiting the Aggies to .143 team batting average.
In the first game of the series, she limited NM State to four hits and just two runs, one of which was earned. Jones took a shutout into the seventh inning before surrendering two runs, only one earned.
She returned to the circle Saturday and tossed a complete-game, three-hit shutout, allowing only six base runners in the game. It broke of string of 78 straight WAC games (both regular season and tournament) that NM State had scored at least one run, dating back to May 3, 2008.
Fresno State's Brooke Ortiz was named the WAC Hitter of the Week after batting .533 with a double and a triple in five games last week. Ortiz scored six runs and had three RBI while recording a .733 slugging percentage and a .611 on-base percentage.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Alex Aguirre of Hawai`i hit .364 with one homer and four RBI ... Louisiana Tech's Melanie Goff hit .400 with one homer and five RBI on the week ... Lauren Lastrapes of Nevada hit .429 with one RBI ... New Mexico State's Malena Padilla hit .333 with a double and one stolen base on the week ... Cheryl Freitas of San Jose State hit .400 with a triple and three RBI last week ... Kelley Kaneshiro of Utah State hit .444 with two home runs and three RBI on the week.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: Hannah Howell of Brigham Young went 1-1 with a save and 11 strikeouts last week ... Fresno State's Michelle Moses went 3-1 with a 1.88 ERA and 15 strikeouts ... Stephanie Ricketts of Hawai`i went 2-0 with a save, 13 strikeouts and a 1.17 ERA on the week ... Nevada's Karlyn Jones went 1-0 with a 2.55 ERA in two appearances on the week ... Krysta Donisthorpe of New Mexico State posted a 1.62 ERA with nine strikeouts last week ... San Jose State's Amanda Pridmore went 2-1 with a 0.88 ERA and seven strikeouts on the week ... Dani Chaplin of Utah State went 1-1 with 11 strikeouts last week.
