Vasquez-Dickson and Linton Earn Mountain West Weekly Award
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Two Lobos have earned the final Mountain West weekly awards of the 2024 season as DeNae Vasquez-Dickson was selected as the Mountain West Freshman of the Week and Amber Linton the Mountain West Pitcher of the Week.
It is the first conference accolade for Vasquez-Dickson and the third, but first this season, for Linton. Linton is the first Lobo to win MW Pitcher of the Week this season, while Vasquez-Dickson is the third Lobo to win MW Freshman of the Week this season and the second in the last three weeks. The three freshman selections are the second most among all schools this season behind Boise State’s four.
In the series against Fresno State, Vasquez-Dickson led the Lobos with five hits, was second on the team in batting average (.455), and also had a .545 slugging percentage and .500 on-base percentage. Among her notable stats against the Bulldogs, the Lobo outfielder delivered the walk-off hit in the ninth inning of Thursday’s game on a double to the wall in left center, and earlier in the game singled to right field in the third inning to bring in a run and tie the game at two. Vasquez-Dickson finished with a game-high three hits with a game-high two RBI in the UNM win, with the three hits a season high.
She followed that up with a hit in Friday’s game that started the four-run fourth inning, later coming around to score on a two-run hit from Ashley Archuleta that put UNM up 2-1 in the 4-1 win, and was involved in both innings that the Lobos scored on Saturday, reaching on a hit-by-pitch in the fourth inning and scoring on the home run from Keyannah Chavez and reached on a single up the middle in the sixth to put runners on the corners which led to the first Lobo run.
On the weekend, Vasquez-Dickson was 5-6 in successfully advancing runners, 3-4 with runners in scoring position and 1-1 with runners on third and less than two outs.
In her final series as a Lobo, Linton started off with a complete-game, season-high 9.0 innings in Thursday’s win, throwing a season-high 173 pitches and seven scoreless innings. In total, the Indiana native threw a team-high 14.1 innings and made an appearance in all three games with two starts, finishing with a combined 11.1 scoreless innings after the seven Thursday, 2.1 scoreless innings in Friday’s win and two more in Saturday’s game.
Linton finished with five strikeouts in Thursday’s win, including striking out a Bulldog for the third out in the ninth inning with bases loaded and one in the fifth inning with runners on second and third with the Lobos getting out of the inning with both runners stranded to keep the game tied at two. In Friday’s game, the senior entered in the fifth inning with bases loaded and two outs and got the Lobos out of the inning on a fielder’s choice, and in the seventh, turned a double play after catching a liner back to the circle and throwing it to first. She also accounted for the final out on a strikeout to earn the save, her second of the season.
In addition to recording a win and a save on the week, Linton also moved into fourth all-time in career strikeouts in the second inning of Thursday’s game.