Kingsville - Following an absolutely dominant weekend in the circle for the Texas A&M - Kingsville softball team, freshman Arianna Alaniz won the first Lone Star Conference Pitcher of the Week award of her career.

Alaniz was spectacular in the first two home starts of her collegiate career. She threw two complete game shutout wins against Sul Ross State and UT Permian Basin, allowing just one hit in each game while striking out an incredible 23 batters. During the 11 innings she pitched (Kingsville mercied SRS in five innings and UTPB in six), Alaniz allowed no extra base hits as opposing batters hit just .053 against her. 

"This award does not surprise me at all, when I recruited her out of high school, she was leading the country in strikeouts on MaxPreps," Head Coach Orlando Salinas said. "She had a minor setback when she broke her nose the first week of the season, now she's settling in and relaxing and doing her thing. She's definitely a special talent and I'm super proud of her growth now only as a player, but as a person, the sky's the limit for her."

The freshman was on fire in the opener against UTPB on Sunday, punching out 14 - which ties the LSC single-game high this season - including the first six batters she faced. She had her no-hitter bid broken up by a bloop single in the top of the sixth on the way to a 9-0 win, the third of four for the Javelinas this weekend.

TAMUK will now look ahead to a four-game road trip where the team will face off with two ranked teams, No.4 Angelo St. and No.22 Lubbock Christian.