OREM, Utah — Utah Valley University enters the 2021 WAC Softball Tournament as the No. 4 seed and will face regular season champion and top seed New Mexico State on Thursday at 4 p.m. PT/5 p.m. MT from Logan Field in Seattle.
The Wolverines (23-26) swept Tarleton at home last weekend in the final series of the WAC regular season. Basia Query accomplished an extremely rare feat in Saturday's regular season finale, when she not only hit a game-ending home run in the final plate appearance of her home career, but also set the new school career hits record in the process. The home run was a walk-off hit, ending the game 9-1 in five innings, and was hit No. 202 for Query. Query hit .625 in last week's series sweep of Tarleton and was named the WAC Hitter of the Week on Monday.
Devyn Cretz, who was 1-0 with a 0.84 ERA and a save in the series sweep — UVU's first of the the WAC season — was named the WAC Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season and fourth time in her career. Cretz is second among all WAC pitchers in wins (14) and strikeouts (119) and is sixth with a 3.53 ERA while leading the conference with four saves.
Linnah Rebolledo is batting . 346 to lead Utah Valley at the plate. She also has eight home runs, eight doubles, five triples and 41 runs batted in, which is third among all WAC hitters and just one behind the leaders. Query is hitting .335 with six home runs, 10 doubles and 30 batted in, while Rien Milliken is batting .331 with a team-high nine home runs and 36 RBIs.
Utah Valley has five different players who have driven in 30 runs or more, with Kyla Hardy (seven home runs, 34 RBIs) and Siena Sandoval (eight home runs, 30 RBIs) the other two.
ABOUT THE OPPOSITION
New Mexico State won its fifth WAC regular season title after taking two of three from California Baptist last weekend. The Aggies swept the Wolverines two weeks ago in Las Cruces, erasing a 9-0 lead in game two to win 13-11, before three late runs in the finale led to a 6-4 win. NM State is led by Matalasi Faapito, who is batting .400 with a WAC-leading 16 home runs. Nikki Butler is batting .349 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs for the Aggies.
