May 16, 2012
FULLERTON, CA -
2012 All-Big West Conference Softball Team
Cal State Fullerton senior Nicole Johnson and junior Ashley Carter were named to the All-Big West Conference First Team, highlighting a group of seven Titans named to the all-league honor roll released by the conference office on Wednesday afternoon.
Johnson and Carter each earned their first career first-team nods and the second all-conference honors of their career, becoming the first Titans on the Big West's First Team since Torrie Anderson in 2010.
Senior Anissa Young and sophomore Leesa Harris were named to the second team while freshman Desiree Ybarra, senior Adriana Martinez, and senior Morgan LeMond earned honorable mention honors. They are the first career all-conference honors for the quintet.
Johnson, an honorable mention honoree last season as a junior, batted .317 with 13 doubles, eight home runs and 29 RBI while also scoring 29 runs in 44 games, missing seven contests due to injury early in the season. She finished the regular season ranked second in the league in slugging (.642) and sixth in on base percentage (.428) while also standing among the top 10 in runs scored (t-8th), RBI (t-7th), doubles (2nd), home runs (3rd), and total bases (77, t-6th).
Carter, an honorable mention selection in the outfield as a sophomore in 2011, finished second on the team with a .325 average and paced the team with 55 hits on the season - the most since Kiki Munoz finished with 64 hits in 2008. Carter, one of two players to start all 51 games in 2012, finished eighth in the league in average and 10th in runs scored (27) while finishing tied for fourth in hits and tied for first in triples (4).
Young, in her first season with Fullerton after spending three seasons in the SEC at LSU, earned second-team honors after batting .298 with team-high's in home runs (9) and RBI (31) during the regular season. She finished fourth in the league in slugging (.588), fifth in on base percentage (.445), tied for fifth in RBI, second in home runs, and seventh in walks (22).
Harris earned her first career All-Big West honor in the outfield after leading the team with a .336 average - good for fourth in the league - and finishing second on the team with 44 hits. She finished sixth in the league with 14 stolen bases - one of just seven players in the league with double digits in the category.
The workhorse for a pitching staff hobbled by injuries, Ybarra finished 13-17 overall with a 4.66 ERA in 39 appearances for the Titans as a rookie. She tossed three shutouts and went the distance 17 times, finishing fifth in innings pitched (184.2), seventh in strikeouts (87), tied for fourth in wins, third in appearances, and second in starts (30) as well as the sixth-fewest walks in the league (42).
Martinez started all 51 games on the infield, batting .270 with team-highs in runs scored (32), sacrifice hits (10), and stolen bases (18). Her 18 steals, which ranked second in the Big West, were a career high and the most since Julie Watson stole the same number in 2004. She also finished the regular season ranked tied for sixth in the league in runs scored.
Despite missing 16 games due to injury, LeMond was named to the honorable mention squad as a designated player after an injury threatened to end her season prematurely. LeMond, batting .345 prior to her injury, finished the regular season hitting .338 with six doubles, a home run, and 14 RBI, and .333 in 11 games during Big West play.