COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- San Diego State softball's Maggie Balint (West Grove, Pa.) has been named the Mountain West Pitcher of the Week for the ninth time this season in 13 opportunities, the league announced Tuesday. The nine selections are tied with former Aztec greats Christina Ross (2008) and Samantha Beasley (2010) for the most in a single season in conference history.
SDSU, which is No. 24 in the latest D1Softball.com rankings, has now won 17 of the 39 MW weekly awards this year, including nine pitchers of the week, seven freshmen and one player.
Balint led San Diego State (35-13, 18-3 MW) to a series victory over Utah State last weekend. She has 11 MW pitcher-of-the-week awards for her career.
Balint, who has now been named the MW Pitcher of the Week 11 times for her career, was 1-0 with a 0.95 ERA in 14 2/3 innings, striking out 25 without issuing a walk. Balint limited the Aggies to just four hits (one extra-base hit) and a .080 average and pitched the first 11 2/3 innings of the series without yielding a hit before giving up a bunt single in the fourth inning of the final game of the series on Sunday.
Balint threw her first career no-hitter and SDSU's first in 15 years (since 2007) in a 4-0 Aztec win on Friday, striking out 12 without issuing a walk or a hit batter. USU's only baserunner came in the top of the fourth inning on a SDSU fielding error. Balint then pitched a perfect seventh inning with two strikeouts in a 3-1 loss on Saturday. The right-hander finished the weekend by allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits and no walks over 6 2/3 innings in San Diego State's 4-3 win on Sunday, while striking out 11. The two earned runs she allowed came when she was out of the game as the relief pitcher gave up a two-out double.
On the season, Balint is 16-5 with six saves and a 1.43 ERA, striking out 257 batters against 33 walks, while limiting her opponents to a .168 average.
Among the Aztec single-season leaders, Balint ranks first in strikeouts per seven innings (10.84) and opponent average (.168), tied for first in winning percentage (.762) and saves (6), third in strikeouts (257), fourth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.79) and hits allowed per seven innings (4.22), and seventh in WHIP (0.801). Among the national leaders, Balint is tied for second in saves (6), 10th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.79), 12th in strikeouts per seven innings (10.84), tied for 12th in strikeouts (257), 20th in ERA (1.43) and 23rd in hits allowed per seven innings (4.22).
Despite playing two-plus seasons with SDSU, Balint ranks first in opponent average (.190), second in strikeouts per seven innings (8.36), third in winning percentage (.695), fourth in saves (10) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.34), fifth in WHIP (0.958) and hits allowed per seven innings (4.78), sixth in strikeouts (495), solo shutouts (since 1999) (13), ninth in wins (41) and tied for ninth in total shutouts (since 1983) (17).
San Diego State has won all seven of its MW series this season and is in first place in the league standings at 18-3, two games ahead of Boise State (16-5) and three ahead of UNLV (15-6). The Aztecs have already won series against both Boise State and UNLV, and need just one win this weekend at New Mexico to clinch at least a share of the MW title and the league's automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA tournament, regardless of what BS does in its series at Colorado State. Two victories by SDSU will clinch an outright league championship.
San Diego State and the Lobos (25-25, 5-16 MW) will play 6 p.m. MT Thursday, 6 p.m. MT Friday and noon MT Saturday.