ARMENDARIZ TABBED MOUNTAIN WEST PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Junior Denise Armendariz earns first career league weekly honor
For the third time in the last four weeks, UNLV softball has snagged the Mountain West Player of the Week award with junior Denise Armendariz picking up her first career honor, the conference office announced Tuesday.
This is the fourth player of the week award and fifth weekly honor overall (Jenny Bressler was named pitcher of the week on March 30) for UNLV in 2021.
Armendariz, a Riverside, California, native, led the way at the plate for UNLV over the weekend as the Rebels won two of three games at home for the series win over New Mexico. Against the Lobos, Armendariz went 4-for-7 (.571) with six runs batted in, one double and one walk. Starting all three games as the designated player, Armendariz drove in six of UNLV’s nine runs, including three of five in game one and three of four in game three.
In a 5-0 series-opening win Saturday, she went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI, with her double in the third inning scoring one and her single in the fifth scoring a pair of runs. It was her 12th double of the season, which leads the Mountain West, while 13 of her 29 hits in 2021 have now gone for extra bases. In the series rubber match Sunday, Armendariz came up big with UNLV trailing 1-0 in the fourth inning as her single through the right side scored two to give the Rebels the lead for good. She added a third RBI in the game on a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning for an important insurance run in the 4-2 series-clinching victory. She also added a hit in the game-two loss, which allowed her to extend her hitting streak to eight games, matching a season-high for the Rebels this year.
UNLV’s series victory over New Mexico was the fourth straight Mountain West series win for the Rebels, who are in second place in the conference standings at 13-2 with three league series left to play in the regular season. First up in this final stretch is three games at Colorado State this weekend, starting with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 24. First pitch of the series set for 11 a.m. PT.