COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- San Diego State softball's Maggie Balint (West Grove, Pa.) and Isabella Espinoza (Huntington Beach, Calif.) each received weekly accolades from the Mountain West on Tuesday. Balint was named the MW Pitcher of the Week for the third time of her career, while Espinoza was selected as the MW Freshman of the Week.
The duo helped the Aztecs to a 4-1 record at the San Diego State Season Kickoff last weekend.
Balint pitched in two of SDSU's five games, going 1-1 with a 1.08 ERA in 13 innings. The right-hander struck out an impressive 24 with just one walk and one hit batter allowed, limiting the opposition to a .170 average. Out of the eight hits she allowed, seven were singles with the other being a double. For the weekend Balint recorded a strikeout in 61.5 percent (24) of the 39 outs she recorded.
Balint picked up the win on Thursday against Middle Tennessee, matching a career-high with 13 strikeouts (all swinging) in just six innings, allowing one run on four hits, no walks and a hit batter. Her previous high of 13 strikeouts came over nine innings. The 13 strikeouts were tied for the seventh most in a game in program history. Balint took the loss on Friday night against 2021 NCAA tournament team Stanford in a 1-0 game, allowing one run on four hits and a walk over seven innings, while striking out 11.
Espinoza, meanwhile, batted .467 (7-for-15) with an RBI, four runs and a stolen base, while owning a perfect fielding percentage in 16 chances at second base. Espinoza, who was the only Aztec with a hit in all five games last weekend, led the team in batting average (.467, min. 5 at-bats), runs (4, tied), hits (7, tied) and on-base percentage (.467, min. 5 AB).
Espinoza was 1-for-2 with a run vs. Middle Tennessee on Thursday. She singled, stole a base and scored two runs against UIC on Friday before recording two of SDSU's six hits in a 1-0 loss to Stanford in the nightcap. Espinoza was 1-for-4 with a RBI, run and sacrifice bunt in a 9-8 win over UIC on Saturday before adding a pair of hits in San Diego State's 5-2 win over Cal Poly on Sunday.
San Diego State continues its 11-game homestand to start the season Wednesday night against San Diego at 6 p.m. PT.