Willard Earns Second Hitter of the Week Award

DENVER – Brigham Young’s Delaney Willard and Hawai‘i’s Stephanie Ricketts have been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for March 19-25. This is the second honor of the season for Willard and the fourth of the season and 11th overall for Ricketts.
 
Willard, a senior right fielder from Camarillo, Calif., hit .444 with a double, three home runs and seven RBI as the Cougars went 4-0 on the week, including a series sweep of New Mexico State. For the week, she posted a 1.556 slugging percentage and a .615 on-base percentage. In the series finale against the Aggies, she became the first Cougar this season to hit two home runs in a game, the second of which was a three-run, walk-off game-winner. She also had five RBI in the game, tying a season high. Willard has hit safely in seven of the last eight games and has reached base all eight games. With four walks last week, she moved into 10th place all-time at BYU in career walks (67) and her 11 home runs this season ties her total from last year in exactly half as many games played.
 
Ricketts, a senior from San Jose, Calif., went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 11 strikeouts against San Jose State. She did not allow an earned run in 13.0 innings of work and held opponents to a .136 batting average. In the series finale, Ricketts fired the fifth no-hitter of her career. She had three walks and five strikeouts and did not allow a runner past second base. On the season, Ricketts is 16-2 with a 0.88 ERA.
 
Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Michelle Moses of Fresno State hit .333 with a pair of homers and five RBI last week ... Hawai‘i’s Kelly Majam hit .375 with a double, a home run and two RBI ... Erin Kipp of Louisiana Tech hit .600 with two doubles, a triple and seven RBI ... Nevada’s Karley Hopkins hit .500 on the week ... Briana Tovio-Asato of New Mexico State hit .400 on the week ... Utah State’s Lindsey Marquez hit .400 with three RBI on the week.
 
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: Tori Almond of Brigham Young went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 13 strikeouts last week ... Louisiana Tech’s Michelle Jones went 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA last week ... Karlyn Jones of Nevada went 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in two appearances last week ... Utah State’s Mandy Harmon went 1-1 with eight strikeouts last week.