May 12, 2008
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -
All-MWC Selections in PDF Format
Senior Christina Ross (Santa Clarita, Calif.) has been named the Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year, the conference announced Monday morning. Head coach Kathy Van Wyk earned MWC Coach of the Year accolades, while seniors Megan McDonald (Glendale, Ariz.) and Tamani Wells (Concord, Calif.), and junior Erin Floros (San Diego, Calif./Mt. Carmel HS) joined Ross as all-conference selections.
Ross picked up her second career MWC Pitcher of the Year award, after earning the honor as a sophomore in 2006. She is just the second pitcher in league history to win the award twice, joining fellow Aztec Celena Velasquez, who was honored in both 2003 and 2004. It is also Ross' third selection to the all-conference squad.
This season, Ross went 13-4 in conference play with a 1.01 ERA. Ross, who has been named the MWC Pitcher of the Week a league record eight times this season, led the MWC in ERA (1.01), strikeouts (108), wins (13) and innings pitched (110.2).
After finishing with an 8-12 conference record in 2007, Van Wyk guided SDSU to a 15-5 record for its fourth league title in seven years. Under Van Wyk's tutelage, San Diego State outscored its opposition, 71-32, while six of the team's 15 wins were shutouts. Van Wyk helped the Aztecs to a season sweep of Colorado State, New Mexico and UNLV for the first time in the league's nine-year history. Van Wyk also won the award in 2002 and 2006.
McDonald led SDSU and was third in the MWC with a .396 batting average. She also recorded the second-highest on-base percentage (.500) and ninth-best slugging percentage (.585). In addition, McDonald tied for seventh with three home runs, while her nine walks were tied for the ninth-most in the MWC. Defensively, McDonald recorded 134 putouts, fourth-most in league play, and committed just two errors in 146 chances (.986 fielding percentage).
Wells came on strong at the end of the conference season, batting a team-best .516 (16-for-31) with nine runs over the final 10 games. In league play, Wells hit .339 with team-highs in runs (12), hits (21), sacrifice bunts (9) and stolen bases (8). Wells ranked among the league leaders in sacrifice bunts (1st, 9), stolen bases (4th, 7), triples (T-4th, 1) and runs (T-8th, 12). In addition, Wells owned a perfect fielding percentage in 15 chances.
After missing the 2007 conference season with a torn ACL, Floros came back with a vengeance in 2008 to lead SDSU in doubles (4) and walks (10). Among the league's best, Floros finished the MWC season tied for fourth in times hit by a pitch (2) and sacrifice bunts (4), fifth in on-base percentage (.477), tied for seventh in walks (10) and tied for eighth in doubles (4). In addition, Floros ranked eighth with 98 putouts and did not record an error in 119 chances, despite playing a bit of catcher, first base and third base. It was Floros' second selection to the all-MWC team after being named the MWC Freshman of the Year in 2006.
The Aztecs (43-15), who wrapped up their fourth Mountain West Conference regular season title with two victories at UNLV over the weekend, will play California (40-24) Friday (May 16) on the campus of Fresno State at 5 p.m. in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Division I Softball Regional Championship. SDSU earned the No. 2 seed in the regional, while the Bears, a team San Diego State defeated, 7-0, earlier in the year, are the No. 3 seed. The host Bulldogs (51-11) earned the No. 16 overall seed and first seed in the region and will face fourth-seeded Sacramento State (32-19) in the other region's pairing at approximately 7:30 p.m.