WAC honors Hawai'i's Coogan
Advertiser Staff
For the third time this season and for the second consecutive week, University of Hawai'i sophomore Melissa Coogan has been chosen by the Western Athletic Conference as its Pitcher of the Week.
COOGAN
Coogan won three decisions against San Jose State over the weekend. The Rainbows won three of four in the series to retain their lead in the WAC at 13-3. Coogan pitched two 4-0 shutouts and won the third by a score of 6-1 in which the run she allowed was unearned. She struck out 15 and walked five in 21 innings, limiting the Spartans to a .141 batting average.
The Rainbows (32-17) will play a doubleheader tomorrow at Centenary (19-34) before closing their WAC regular season at Louisiana Tech (16-34, 6-6 WAC) for doubleheaders Friday and Saturday.
Hawai'i has a two-game lead on runner-up Fresno State (10-4). The Rainbows' magic number for clinching their first conference title is four. They will clinch if they sweep Louisiana Tech. Tulsa and Louisiana Tech — each 6-6 in the WAC — each have eight games left and are still in contention. The WAC champion receives an automatic berth in the 64-team NCAA Tournament.
If UH and FSU finish in a tie for first, head-to-head outcome is the first tiebreaker and the teams split their season series. The next tiebreaker is comparing each team's record against the other WAC teams.
Coogan, who is 26-9 with a 1.29 earned-run average, is three wins shy of tying the school's single-season win total of 29 set by Brooke Wilkins in 1994 and '95.
Coogan is second in the WAC in ERA behind Fresno State's Jamie Southern (19-10, 0.67).
Offensively, UH first baseman Stacey Porter continues to dominate. She leads the WAC in batting average (460), slugging percentage (.898), on-base percentage (.554) and walks (28). She shares the league lead in home runs with FSU's Christine Clark at 13. Porter also is 11-for-11 in steals.
