March 25, 2008
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - San Diego State softball player Christina Ross (Santa Clarita, Calif./Univ. of Kansas) has been named the Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Week, Commissioner Craig Thompson announced Tuesday. It is the league-leading fifth honor of the season for Ross and eighth of her career.
Ross' eight selections tie her with Bre DeSanta (2002-03) for second on the school's all-time list, three behind Celena Velasquez (2003-06). In addition, her five season picks, along with Sandra Durazo (2001), are the second most in a single year by an Aztec, just one behind DeSanta's six in 2002.
A senior, Ross went 3-0 in five appearances to help the Aztecs to a 4-1 record over the weekend, including a 3-1 mark at the competitive Judy Garman Classic. She registered a 0.99 ERA in 28 1/3 innings, which is remarkable considering she faced three nationally ranked opponents and another who were receiving votes earlier this season. Ross struck out 28 batters with 11 walks while limiting her opponents to a .211 batting average with just one extra-base hit.
Ross, a two-time all-MWC selection, got better as the weekend went along as she pitched the final 18 2/3 innings without allowing a run and the final 23 2/3 innings without giving up an earned run.
After retiring the only batter she faced in 1/3 innings of relief against San Diego on Tuesday, Ross pitched all 12 innings in SDSU's 9-5 victory over No. 19/18 Washington on Thursday night. Ross, who threw 223 pitching in the game, limited the Huskies to a .244 batting average (10-for-41) and a pro-rated 2.92 runs per seven innings to a team that came into the weekend with a .336 batting average and a 5.65 runs per game output. Ross stranded 17 Washington baserunners, including nine over the final five innings of the international tiebreaker.
Ross came back the next day and allowed one hit and a walk over three innings of scoreless relief against No. 6/6 Michigan. Six of her nine outs were strikeouts.
Later in the night, Ross pitched eight innings of scoreless ball in San Diego State's 1-0 win over No. 18/14 DePaul, the team's fifth victory over a 2007 Women's College World Series opponent. She gave up six hits and two walks (one intentional) while recording three strikeouts.
On the final day of the Judy Garman Classic on Saturday, Ross struck out seven over five innings of relief in the Aztecs' 3-0 shutout over Illinois.
This season, Ross leads the league in ERA (0.93), innings pitched (158.2), strikeouts (151), wins (16) and appearances (29). If the season ended today, Ross would rank among the school's single-season leaders in lowest opponents batting average (T-4th, .205), win percentage (T-5th, .667), ERA (sixth), total shutouts (T-6th, 8), wins (T-10th), strikeouts (10th) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (10th, 4.08).
In her third season at SDSU after transferring from Kansas, Ross is ranked among the school's all-time leaders in all 16 categories, including second in wins (56) and winning percentage (.651), third in strikeouts (488), fourth in opponents batting average (.221) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.84), and fifth in shutouts (22).
The Aztecs, who are ranked 22nd in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and ranked No. 25 by USA Today/NFCA, will begin their quest for their fourth league title when the play host to UNLV on April 5 at 1 p.m.