May 10, 2006
SAN DIEGO -
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SDSU Softball Looks To Win Its First-Ever Mountain West Tournament
Fresh off claiming its third Mountain West Conference regular season championship in five years, the San Diego State softball team will look to win its first-ever MWC tournament when it travels to Las Vegas, Nev., this weekend. The Aztecs (30-11, 15-3 MWC), who finished the MWC regular season with their highest conference winning percentage in school history (.833), earned the No. 1 seed and will have a bye in the six-team, double-elimination tournament. The winner of the tournament receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
SDSU will face the winner of fourth-seeded UNLV and fifth-seeded Colorado State at 7 p.m. Thursday in its first game. The Aztecs took three of four against the Rebels (24-35, 8-12 MWC) in the regular season and won all four games against the Rams (26-24, 6-14 MWC).
SDSU received 20 points in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate national poll and are tied with Florida for 26th in the country, 22 points behind No. 25 Southern Illinois.
SDSU and the MWC Championships
Despite winning three of the seven regular season titles, the Aztecs have never won the MWC tournament, which gives the winner an automatic bit to NCAAs. In fact, SDSU is 9-9 in the MWC tournament despite a 82-47 (.636) record against MWC competition during the regular season.
The Aztecs have reached the MWC championship game a league-best four times (2001-04), losing to Utah twice (2002, '04), and Brigham Young (2001) and Colorado State (2003).
This will be the third time SDSU received the No. 1 seed, the most times in MWC history.
Erin Floros Named MWC Player of the Week
San Diego State freshman Erin Floros (San Diego, Calif./Mt. Carmel HS) has been named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week on May 9. It is the first-ever award for the catcher and the fifth different SDSU player to be recognized by the league this season.
Floros batted .615 (8-for-13) to help the Aztecs clinch their third Mountain West title in the last five seasons. She also led the team in hits (8), runs (6), doubles (2), total bases (10) and putouts (31) over the week. Defensively, Floros threw out two of three runners trying to steal second base. Over the final three games of the four-game weekend, she batted .800 (8-for-10).
Floros went 3-for-3 with two RBI and a career-high four runs in SDSU's 8-3 win over Utah in the opener of a doubleheader, giving the Aztecs their first regular season title since 2003.
For the season, Floros is batting .397 (48-for-121) with three home runs and 20 RBI. She leads the team in hits (48), doubles (12), total bases (69), slugging percentage (.570), on base percentage (.486), multi-hit games (15) and multi-RBI games (7). One of the top fielding catchers in the league, Floros has committed only two errors for a fielding percentage of .992.
Floros is the second SDSU hitter to win the award this season, joining classmate Monica Alnes (April 25). Senior Celena Velasquez (April 18), sophomore Christina Ross (April 4) and freshman Melissa Owens (March 7) were each named MWC Pitcher of the Week earlier this year.
Aztecs Fall From National Rankings; Receiving Votes in Latest ESPN/USA Softball Poll
After earning a national ranking for the first time in school history on April 25 and staying there for two weeks, SDSU dropped to a tie for 26th with Florida with 20 points. The Aztecs and Gators are 22 points from No. 25 Southern Illinois . It is the eighth time in the last 10 weeks that SDSU has either been ranked or receiving votes in the poll.
In the USA Today/NFCA poll, the Aztecs received enough votes to be mentioned in the poll for the second consecutive week. SDSU jumped three places from last week to 28th, its highest ranking of the season. The Aztecs debuted on the March 8 version of the poll in 31st and stayed in that spot the following week.
SDSU and the RPI
The Aztecs stayed at No. 21 in the latest RPI rankings of 275 schools.
According to the rankings, SDSU has the 26th-best winning percentage in the nation (.732) while playing the 37th toughest schedule. The Aztecs' 2006 opponents have a combined winning percentage of .555.
SDSU is 7-5 against top 50 RPI schools, 13-4 against teams rated between 51 and 100, 10-2 versus 101-200 schools and have not played an opponent with an RPI rating in the 201 and up range.
Aztecs Among the National Leaders
SDSU is ranked among the national leaders in a number of categories, both as a team and individually.
As of May 9, the Aztecs were ranked 25th with a .301 batting average. Their .732 win percentage (30-11) is the 26th-highest in the nation.
Individually, sophomore Tamani Wells leads the way as she is the fourth-hardest in the nation to strikeout. In fact, the Concord, Calif., native strikes out only once every 31 at-bats (three strikeouts in 93 official at-bats).
Sophomore sensation Christina Ross is ranked 39th in the nation with her 1.38 ERA. The mark is also the 13th-lowest among all sophomores.