Tigers Continue Their Big Week With A Sweep Of The Big West Weekly Awards

May 9, 2011

Irvine, Calif. - After sweeping the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos to take sole possession of first place, the Pacific softball team swept the Big West's weekly awards for the week ending on May 8. Freshman Kelsey Rodriguez earned player of the week honors while sophomore Nikki Armagost took home the pitcher of the week award. The award was Rodriguez's first career weekly honor while Armagost took her third career award and second of the season.

Pacific has seven weekly awards on the year with four player of the week awards and three pitching awards.

The offensive catalyst for Pacific's sweep of the Gauchos over the weekend, Rodriguez drove in six of the Tigers' 13 RBI in its three games including picking up all three game-winning hits throughout the series. Nearly impossible to retire throughout the weekend, Rodriguez posted an .800 on-base percentage reaching base eight out of her 10 trips to the plate.

Driving in a pair of runs in each of the three games, Rodriguez picked up her first game-winning RBI in the first game of the weekend on her second career home run, a solo home run to left field. She used singles in each of the next two games to repeat the feat as the Tigers inched closer to its first Big West championship.

For the year, Rodriguez leads the Big West in hitting after finishing the week at .414. She has driven in 25 RBI while scoring 24 runs. She sports a .469 on-base percentage fourth best among the Big West hitters.

In the circle, Armagost led the way as the sophomore picked up a pair of wins to push the Tigers to the brink of their first-ever conference title. Giving up just one earned run in two games, Nikki held the potent Gaucho offense off balance in 14 innings of work. Her two complete game wins moved her record to 9-1 in Big West play while picking up her sixth and seventh complete games.

In game one, Nikki faced just two real jams, getting out of both relatively unscathed. In game three, Nikki got out of the only big trouble she faced without giving up a run in the fourth before a two-out error cost the sophomore her shutout in the fifth.

For the series, Armagost recorded a 0.50 ERA, recorded a .208 opponent batting average and allowed just one earned run in her 14.0 innings of work. She is 18-9 overall with a 2.61 ERA.