April 5, 2016
TheMW.com Link: http://www.themw.com/video/5703eee5e4b0916cdd7bf7dc
San Jose, Calif. - San Jose State pitcher Colette Riggs and infielder Jessie Hufstetler are the Mountain West Conference Pitcher and Player of the Week for games played from March 28 through April 4.
Riggs and Hufstetler were integral parts of the Spartans posting a 5-1 record in two conference series. SJSU swept a three-games set against UNLV and took two-of-three at Colorado State last week.
Riggs, a junior right-hander out of Yorba Linda, Calif., was 3-0 in three starts and picked up a save in four appearances. She was in the circle for 14.1 innings and struck out six. Riggs held opponents to 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position and posted a 1.95 ERA.
In a start against UNLV (3/29), she pitched 4.2 frames of a six-inning 9-1 victory, scattering four hits and giving up one unearned run. Three of the four hits UNLV mustered were singles and only one hitter advanced past first base.
Entering the final game of the UNLV series (3/30) with a 4-3 lead in the fifth, Riggs set down the first seven batters she faced. The Rebels lone hit was a one-out single in the top of the seventh. Riggs then induced a game ending double play to secure the series sweep and earned a save, the first of her career.
Riggs earned both wins for the Spartans against Colorado State. In game two of the series (4/3), a 13-5 six-inning victory, she pitched 3.2 innings, scattered three hits, struck out one and gave up one earned run.
In the series winning contest, a 12-4 six-inning win, Riggs started, went 3.0 innings with three strikeouts. She gave up her first earned run of the week the bottom of the first inning and left the game with an 8-4 lead.
This is Riggs' first Mountain West Pitcher of the Week honor of the year and the first of her career.
In six games Hufstetler, a senior from Atascadero, Calif., hit .571 (12-for-21), drove in 12 and scored eight times. She had four doubles, three triples and two home runs.
She never hit less than .500 in any of the team's six games. In five games she had multiple hits and in four games multiple extra-base hits. Hufstetler slugged 1.333, had an on base percentage of .565 and a 1.000 fielding percentage.
In three-game sweep of UNLV Hufstetler went 5-for-9 (.556) at the plate, scored four times and drove in four runs. She had two doubles in the team's 9-1, five-inning win and two triples in a 6-3 victory in the series finale.
At Colorado State she was 7-for-12 (.583), had eight RBIs and scored four runs. She had a pair of doubles in the series opener and blasted two three-run homers in the 12-4, six inning series clinching win on Monday.
With 12 hits this week, Hufstetler climbed into third place on the program's all-time hits list and improved her batting average this year from .257 to .330.
This is Hufstelter's first Mountain West Player of the Week honor of the year and the third of her career.