ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— New Mexico outfielder Keyannah Chavez was named the Mountain West Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week, as announced by the conference on Tuesday.
The selections mark the second freshman of the week accolade for Chavez this season and the third overall conference award for the Lobo. It also marks the fourth and fifth time that a UNM player has been selected for a conference weekly honor this season.
Chavez hit .600 in the series against San José State with six hits (tying the team high) and six RBI, scoring four runs and having a .667 on-base percentage. Additionally, she was 8-10 in successfully advancing runners and 5-8 with runners in scoring position. Overall, the Lobo had at least one hit in all three games of the series with three hits in game two and two in game three.
The Texas native finished with a season-high four RBI in Saturday’s 8-0 win over San José State, going 3-4 to tie her season high in hits. Two RBI came on a single up the middle to open the scoring in the first inning and came around to score from first on the next play that made it 4-0 UNM. Her single in the fourth inning scored another run and the freshman laid down a squeeze bunt in the sixth inning as part of a three-run inning to enforce the run rule.
While she went 2-4 and scored two runs in Sunday’s win, defensively, Chavez had two huge putouts in the top of the seventh inning with the Lobos leading 8-6, catching two fly balls at the wall to maintain the lead. Chavez demonstrated her speed on both runs scored, scoring from first in both instances.
Among the conference, Chavez is tied for the lead in runs scored (29), fifth in on-base percentage (.448) and hits (36) and eighth in batting average (.360). In just conference games, Chavez is hitting .368 with a .538 on-base percentage and seven RBI and is 2-2 in stolen bases.