Upcoming Event: Softball versus UCSB on February 6, 2026 at 2 p.m.
2 p.m.
Softball
vs UCSB
The University of Utah Athletics
Utah Softball Notes
5/10/2005 12:00 AM | Softball
May 10, 2005
Complete Release With Statistics And Tournament Bracket in PDF Format
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The Lineup: The University of Utah softball team (20-27 overall) begins the second season, playing in the double-elimination Mountain West Conference Tournament this weekend. The Utes enter the tourney as the No. 4 seed and begin play against the No. 5 seed New Mexico Lobos (15-32) on Thursday, May 12, at 11:30 a.m. (PDT). The tournament, hosted on the campus of San Diego State University, is from May 12-14. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament field of 64.
Quoting Head Coach Mona Stevens:
On heading to the MWC Tournament: "I think our last week of play set the stage for this tournament. I believe we could have beaten Brigham Young last week. The difference in those games was that BYU believed that it was a better club. We haven't felt that way much this year but when we beat Florida State, who split a doubleheader with BYU, I think we started to realize that we are a good team.
"This is our time of the year. We are emotionally and mentally ready to manage our way through the tournament. We are going to go down there and we're going to win some games."
On last week: "We did things last week that let our opponent stay in the game. But, what I saw was that our team let go of all cares and concerns and just went out and played ball. When that occurred, an optimistic air returned to our offense. Everyone was excited to get an at-bat so they could see what the result was going to be and we haven't felt like that in a while.
"I think the tell-tale sign that our offense started clicking was that we had eight different players with an RBI against Florida State. So everyone had a good at-bat"
The Tournament Setup:
The No. 4 seeded Utes will begin play against the No. 5 seeded New Mexico Lobos (15-32). The two rivals have met four times this year with the Utes winning the series this season, 3-1. The Lobos did win in the last meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., 3-2.
BYU (41-12) and UNLV (41-16) both received first-round byes as the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively. BYU will play the winner of the Utah/UNM game while UNLV awaits the victor of the No. 3 seeded Colorado State (29-20) and No. 6 seeded San Diego State (26-28) game.
More Hits than Casey Kasem: The Utes had 11 hits in each of their last two games, and went 2-0 in those outings. Utah averages 6.55 hits per game. For the year, Utah has had ten 10-hit games. It is 8-2 in those games. The team had a season-best 14 hits in the season-opening win over Utah Valley State (Feb. 4). It's best effort against a conference rival was a 13-hit victory against New Mexico on May 1.
Rising to the Occasion: The University of Utah is treading in familiar territory. While it is the only MWC team to win both the regular season and tournament titles in the same year (1999), it has made a run through the tournament as a lower seed to claim the automatic bid. Utah has snagged the bid in three of the last five years, including in 2004 when it was the fourth seed.
"Devina Intervention": Devina Quintero has had the hot bat for the Utes in the last few weeks. Over the last three weeks, the third baseman is hitting .444, but more impressive was her effort in the week leading up the conference tourney. She went 7-for-12 at the plate in four games last week to hit a team-best .538. Quintero, whose average has hovered just below the .300 plateau, boosted her season percentage up to .309.
Who Saves?: Both pitchers Brianna Gourdin and Lindsie Nielsen tallied their first saves of the season last week. Gourdin came on in relief of Nielsen to get the save against UVSC on Friday. Nielsen recorded her own save by returning the favor in the season-finale against Florida State on Saturday.
Let's Go Streakin': A few Utes are working on some hitting streaks as they enter tourney play. Meghan Crouse has a six-game hitting streak but missed the last two games of the year due to illness. Her hitting streak includes a 2-for-3 showing in the conference finale against BYU. It was the second two-hit game of Crouse's career. Also, Devina Quintero has a hit in each of the last five games while Bryanne Durrence has had one in the last three.
No Friend to the Foe: Diana Phillips has been no friend to conference pitchers. Phillips finished the season second on the team in hitting .309. However, when she battled against conference rivals, her average bumped up to a team-best .411. She also tallied a hit in each of the last four conference games.
A Good Start: Bryanne Durrence has been a great rally starter for the Utes this season. When she leads off an inning, she reaches base a team-best 48 percent of the time. Durrence has led off an inning 27 times this year and has reached in 13 of those at bats. The leadoff hitter, Jackie Wong, reaches an impressive 46 percent of the time.
Hit and Runs: The Utes tallied eight runs against Florida State. That is the most runs scored by the Utes since they plated seven in the 13-7 loss to Iowa (March 17) ... three of the last five games have been one-run affairs. For the year, the Utes have had 14 one-run games and are 6-8 ... Utah has entered the conference tournament with an regular season finale win in three of the last four years. This season, Utah is on the heels of a 8-5 win over Florida State ... for most of the season, Utah has had only one player batting better than .300 (Diana Phillips). But, the Utes enter the tournament with four hitting better than .300. In addition to Phillips (.309), Ivette Hernandez (.311), Devina Quintero (.309) and Bryanne Durrence (.304) are over the .300 barrier.
At the Helm: Mona Stevens is in her ninth season as Utah's softball head coach. Stevens is 280-237-1 all-time and owns a 106-84-1 record in conference play. She has led her squad to four NCAA regional appearances and has coached three All-Americans. Stevens has also coached 12 all-West Region players including Glennis Donnelly and Melissa Stahnke in 2004. Her teams have won one MWC regular season title and three MWC tournament titles, including the 2004 tournament championship.
On Deck: The Utes will need to win the Mountain West Conference Tournament in order to advance to the NCAA Tournament. The tournament begins with Regionals on May 20-22 and continues with Super Regionals on May 27-28 and the World Series on June 2-8.
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