SAN BRUNO, Calif. – After dominating performances from freshmen Rylee Jensen and Kerisa Viramontes, they were named West Coast Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, as announced by the conference on Monday.
In No. 25 BYU softball's three wins at the DeMarini Desert Classic, Jensen, the freshman outfielder, hit a blistering .700 batting average on 7 of 10 hitting. She also tallied six doubles during the tournament. On defense, she had five putouts total on the weekend. She had a 1.300 slugging percentage and a .750 on-base percentage as well. Following the last three games, Jensen leads the team in batting average (.500), at bats (24), hits (12), doubles (7), total bases (19) and on-base percentage (.556).
Jensen’s three doubles in the win over Nevada ties five other players for doubles in a single game in BYU history. Her second double against the Wolf Pack sparked the fifth-inning outburst where the Cougars scored all eight of their runs. She had five doubles in the doubleheader on Saturday with two against Texas State and her record-tying three against Nevada. In the wins over Hawaii and Texas State, she had two RBI and two hits in each game.
In her collegiate debut, Viramontes threw a no-hitter in an 8-0 run-rule win over Nevada. She pitched five innings, throwing three strikeouts and just one walk. She is the second freshman in BYU history to throw a no-hitter, the other coming from Paige Affleck in 2008. She is the only BYU pitcher to throw a no-hitter in her first start.
This is the first player of the week honor of the season for BYU and second-straight pitcher of the week. McKenna Bull took home the first WCC Pitcher of the Week award of the season last week. The last player of the week for the Cougars came in week 13 of last season when Ashley Thompson won.
Check out the video release on the WCC's website.
Starting on Thursday, BYU will participate in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California.