April 3, 2006
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State senior outfielder Paul Smyth and sophomore right-hander Mike Koons have been named Mountain West Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week respectively. This is the second weekly award for Smyth this season, while Koons garners his first career weekly honor. The duo helped SDSU to a 3-1 record last week and a share of the lead in the league standings.
Smyth, from Temecula, Calif., went 7-for-15 (.467) from the plate with a home run, a triple, a double, two RBI and seven runs scored as San Diego State went 3-1 at the MWC Preseason Tournament in San Diego last week. Smyth started the tournament with a 1-for-3 performance vs. New Mexico. He led off the sixth inning with a solo home run to tie the score at two apiece, as the Aztecs lost to the Lobos, 3-2 in 10 innings.
Against Utah, Smyth went 2-for-4 with a run scored in SDSU's 5-0 victory. He then went 1-for-4, with a RBI triple and one run scored in the Aztecs' 9-7 win vs. MWC regular-season favorite TCU and concluded the tournament with a 3-for-4, four run scored effort in San Diego State's 11-10 victory over UNLV. Smyth scored each of his first four times at bat vs. the Rebels. Defensively, he had eight putouts with no errors in left field.
Koons, a Castle Rock, Colo., native, recorded his third win of the year, tossing 7.0 innings of shutout baseball, walking one and striking out five in San Diego State's 5-0 win over Utah. He gave up only five hits, while holding the second-best hitting team in the conference to a .192 batting average for the game (Utah was batting .308 on the season as a team before facing San Diego State). He allowed more than one Ute base runner in only one inning.
The Aztecs continue their current 15-game home stand as they host number-one ranked (Baseball America) Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday (April 4) at 6:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium. They return to conference action this weekend as they host New Mexico in a three-game league series beginning Friday night at 6:00 p.m.