May 11, 2009
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - San Diego State's Bailey Micetich (Woodland, Calif.) has been named the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year, the league announced Monday morning. Micetich was joined on the all-MWC team by sophomore Samantha Beasley (San Diego/Steele Canyon HS), senior Erin Floros (San Diego/Mt. Carmel HS), senior Tonye McCorkle (Santa Ana Heights, Calif.) and junior Brittany Knudsen (San Diego/Escondido HS).
Micetich became the fourth Aztec to earn Freshman-of-the-Year honors in the conference's 10-year history and first since Floros picked up the award in 2006. In conference play, Micetich went 7-2 with a league-low 1.09 ERA in 57 2/3 innings. She also topped the MWC in wins, and was second in opposing batting average (.203) and innings pitched. On the season, Micetich is 19-6 with a 1.49 ERA over 173 2/3 innings. Micetich, who earlier this season set a school record with 15 consecutive victories, recorded 177 strikeouts to 34 walks for a 5.21 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Beasley went 3-3 in league action with a 2.14 ERA over 49 innings while leading the league with 59 strikeouts. She also ranked among the top five in the conference in ERA, opposing batting average (.228), innings pitched, wins, saves and games started. Overall in 2009, Beasley is 14-12 with a 1.98 ERA (third in MWC) in 184.0 innings (third in MWC), while ranking first in the conference with 223 strikeouts (second in school history). Beasley, who has been named the MWC Pitcher of the Week four times this season, picked up her first all-MWC accolade of her career.
Floros, the first All-American in school history (2006), picked up her third all-MWC selection in three chances (missed 2007 MWC season with torn ACL) after batting .375 with two home runs and 15 RBI. She also had a perfect fielding percentage in a league-high 119 chances, while posting impressive marks in slugging percentage (.542) and on-base percentage (.446). On the season, Floros leads the team in batting average (.358), home runs (4), RBI (30), slugging percentage (.514), on-base percentage (.433) and fielding percentage (1.000).
McCorkle wrapped up her two-year MWC career in fine fashion with top-five marks in stolen bases (6, first), batting average (.438, third), on-base percentage (.481, third), hits (21, third) and triples (1, tie-third). Overall, McCorkle is hitting .312 and leads the squad in at-bats (157), hits (49), total bases (66), stolen bases (11, tied) and multi-hit games (14). It is the first all-MWC selection for McCorkle, who was named the Big East Co-Rookie of the Year in 2006 en route to garnering all-Big East accolades while at Syracuse.
Knudsen earned her second all-MWC honor after finishing the conference on a tear, hitting .432 with five doubles over her final 10 games. In MWC action, Knudsen hit .365 while tying for league lead with six doubles. She also scored nine times in 15 games and had seven walks for a .459 on-base percentage. Overall in 2009, Knudsen is batting .312 with team bests in runs (22), doubles (13), walks (27) and stolen bases (11, tied). Knudsen, the all-time school leader in walks (78), despite being a junior, has started the past 150 games at SDSU dating back to the 2007 season.
The Aztecs (33-18), who earned their fifth NCAA tournament bid in nine seasons on Sunday, will play defending champion and 10th-seeded Arizona State (40-16) Friday on the Sun Devil campus at 5 p.m. The entire Tempe Regional will be broadcast live on ESPNU, including the preliminary game between LSU (32-16-1) and Cal State Fullerton (29-19), which will begin at 2:30 p.m.