PacWest Conference Weekly Awards (Mar. 26)

IRVINE, Calif. – The Tournament of Champions Most Valuable Player, Top Pitcher, and All-Tournament Team, freshman pitcher Brooke Larsen (14-2) added her first Pacific West Conference Player of the Week honor after a dominant 7-0 week for Academy of Art University Softball. The award was based on games played Mar. 19-25.

Larsen impressed on both sides of the ball with a 0.00 earned run average, four wins, two shutouts, two complete games, a save, and 31 strikeouts in 21.2 innings of work. She has now not allowed a run in her last 27.2 innings pitched. As a hitter, the Graphic Design major also batted .400 (8-for-20) and slugged .500 with three runs batted in, two doubles, seven runs scored, and a stolen base.

In a week where opponents hit just .118 against her, Larsen began by shutting out Humboldt State with 10 strikeouts and notching the game-winning RBI as part of a 4-for-6 day with three runs scored. To start the Tournament of Champions, she shut out No. 13 Sonoma State with seven strikeouts and just two hits allowed then came on to earn a relief win in a combined shutout with freshman pitcher Cecilia Lopez (6-4) versus Cal State San Bernardino that night. The following day, Larsen scored three times and collected her first collegiate save with one scoreless inning after the Urban Knights had gone ahead of Cal State Dominguez Hills 7-6 with four runs in the seventh. To complete the week, the dynamic freshman went 2-for-3 with one RBI in a run-rule victory over Cal State San Marcos then provided 4.1 scoreless relief innings with only one hit allowed and nine strikeouts for her 14th win of the season plus a combined shutout with senior pitcher Brenna Mitchell (2-3) versus Western Washington.

Larsen currently leads the PacWest in wins (14), complete games (13), and innings pitched (112.0). She is also second in strikeouts (137), ERA (1.00), and shutouts (6). Additionally, she is tied for sixth in the conference in doubles as a hitter (8).

This is the fifth PacWest weekly honor of Larsen's career and her first Player of the Week honor after she earned Freshman of the Week four times previously (Feb. 5, Feb. 12, Feb. 19, Mar. 19).