DENVER – Louisiana Tech’s Amberly Waits and Fresno State’s Morgan Melloh have been named the Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for April 13-19. This is the first honor of the season and third career honor for Waits, and the third honor of the season and eighth career honor for Melloh.

Waits, a junior short stop from Cleburne, Texas, hit .529 on the week while breaking two Louisiana Tech single-season records. In leading the Techsters to a 4-1 mark on the week, Waits registered two doubles and three home runs, scored seven runs and drove home eight. She recorded a .579 on-base percentage and a 1.176 slugging percentage. She had at least one hit in each game and posted three multi-hit games while scoring at least one run and registering at least one RBI in four of the five games. In a 7-4 win over North Texas, Waits recorded her 11th home run of the year, setting a Louisiana Tech single-season record. She added two more homers on the week and now has 13. In a 7-2 win over Utah State on Saturday, Waits hit a two-run home run which gave her 47 RBI on the year, good for another Tech single-season record.

Melloh, a sophomore left-hander from Fishers, Ind., threw two complete-game shutouts vs. Nevada as the Bulldogs took the series from the Wolf Pack, 2-1. In 20 innings, she allowed just two earned runs, struck out 25 and pitched 16 consecutive shutout innings. In the first game of the series, Melloh fanned 14 and recorded her 800th career strikeout, becoming just the third Bulldog pitcher and fourth WAC pitcher ever to amass 800 career strikeouts. She also helped end two streaks Friday, snapping the 12-game winning streak of Nevada pitcher Katie Holverson and the 20-game hitting streak of left fielder Brittany Puzey. On Saturday, Melloh moved to third place all-time in the WAC with 818 career strikeouts. With 364 strikeouts this season, Melloh is on pace to break the WAC and Fresno State single-season marks she set last year. She currently leads the NCAA in strikeouts and is looking to become just the third pitcher in NCAA history to have back-to-back 400 strikeout seasons as a freshman and sophomore. She has 140 strikeouts in WAC games, 37 away from the all-time record with six games remaining.

Other Hitter of the Week nominees included: Boise State’s Kathy Cox set new school records with five RBI and four runs scored in a 12-2 win over College of Idaho ... Haley Gilleland of Fresno State hit .375 with two RBI on the week ... Hawai‘i’s Audrey Andrade hit .600 with two doubles and four RBI on the week ...  Brittany Puzey of Nevada hit .375 with an RBI on the week ... New Mexico State’s Tiare Jennings set three single-season records and smacked three homers on the week.

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees included: Hawai‘i's Stephanie Ricketts went 1-1 on the week ... Meghan Krieg of Louisiana Tech went 3-0 with 18 strikeouts last week ... Nevada’s Katie Holverson went 1-1 with a 0.40 ERA in three appearances last week ... Kim Watson of New Mexico State was 2-0 and broke the NM State career wins record last week.