March 19, 2002
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - UNLV softball player Jackie Kerrigan has been named the Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Week, it was announced Tuesday.
Kerrigan becomes the first player this season to repeat as the league's top pitcher as the freshman star led the Rebels to a 4-2 record at the Capital Classic softball tournament in Sacramento, Calif., over the weekend.
For the week, Kerrigan posted a 3-1 record in four appearances. In that span, she won a complete game one-hitter, earned two wins in relief and suffered her only loss in a nine-inning outing against Miami (Ohio).
Her most impressive outing came against Sacramento State in which she defeated the hosts by completing a one-hit shutout. She allowed just two base runners in the game, giving up one single and one walk. She retired the first nine batters of the game and faced only 23, striking out three.
Against Middle Tennessee, she came into the game in relief in the sixth inning of a 2-2 game. With the bases loaded, she struck out two batters and forced another to hit into a fielder's choice to preserve the tie. The Rebels took the lead in the next inning and went on to a 4-2 win.
The Eugene, Ore., native started her second game of the week against Miami (Ohio), and mowed down the first seven hitters before giving up her first runs in more than 18 innings. She held the Redhawks to just the pair of runs until the eighth inning, when Miami pushed another run across courtesy of the international tie-breaker rule. Miami scored a second unearned run in the ninth, and after UNLV failed to answer the run, Kerrigan's four-game winning streak was snapped.
She earned a spot on the all-tournament team after allowing just one earned run and striking out 15 over 21.2 innings of work. She posted a 0.32 ERA for the week and stretched her string of scoreless innings pitched to 18.1 before Miami scored in the third inning of the week's finale.
To date, Kerrigan is the only player in the league to win multiple weekly awards. She was also the MWC Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 19 after leading the Rebels to a 4-1 mark in the UNLV Desert Softball Classic.
Kerrigan and the Rebels next travel to Cedar City, Utah, to play Southern Utah in a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader on Thursday, March 21.
