TEMPE – One would be hard-pressed to find a NCAA softball player that had a better week than Arizona State University’s Dallas Escobedo this past week and her clean sweep of every major weekly award on Tuesday only affirms that argument.
Escobedo was honored as the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I National Player of the Week, the USA Softball National Player of the Week and the Pac-12 Conference Pitcher of the Week following her exceptional performances last weekend at the stacked Judi Garman Classic.
Escobedo, a 6-0 right-hander from Glendale, Ariz., dominated from the circle last week for the Sun Devils, registering a perfect 4-0 record to go along with a 0.26 ERA and 38 strikeouts over 27 innings of work. Over the course of the four victories, Escobedo held her opposition to a paltry .060 batting average and a grand total of five hits.
Included among her impressive efforts was her fourth career no-hitter, earned during a 13-strikeout blanking of Longwood, a one-hit shutout of then-No. 5 Michigan (nine K’s), 10 strikeouts while permitting just a single base knock in outlasting then-No. 16 Nebraska, 1-0 (8 inn.), and five innings of three-hit ball while allowing her only earned run for the week in a 9-1 (5 inn.) rout of Wisconsin.
The senior ace also made personal history by achieving her 1,000th career strikeout on her first K during the 2-0 win over the Wolverines. In the process she became just the second Sun Devil hurler to reach the milestone and only the 14th Pac-12 player in conference history to accomplish the feat.
"Dallas is pretty locked in right now,” Arizona State head coach Craig Nicholson said. “She's making good pitches, and she picking her spots. Any time she gets into tight situations, she’s staying relaxed. The biggest thing for her is she's not walking anybody. She's throwing strikes and really attacking hitters. These honors obviously mean a lot to us as a team and the hard work Dallas puts in each week to make us better. She is a leader on this team and this weekend was a perfect example of that."
Escobedo’s selection for the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I National Player of the Week is the first of her career while her USA Softball National Player of the Week selection is the third of her career.
Escobedo has now received Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week seven times over the course of her career, the third-most honors for an Arizona State player all-time behind former Sun Devils Kirsten Voak (eight) and Katie Burkhart (nine). It is the 81st selection for Arizona State all-time. Escobedo was also selected as the College Sports Madness National Pitcher of the Week this week as well.
For the 2014 campaign, Escobedo owns an 11-2 mark with a 0.80 ERA, 13 complete games, including eight solo shutouts, and a team-best 138 strikeouts to just 11 walks over 88 innings. She is currently second in total strikeouts nationally and 10th in strikeouts per seven innings at 11.0. She is also the national leader with eight shutouts this season.
She and her Sun Devil teammates will return to action over March 14-16, opening Pac-12 league play on the road in Corvallis, Ore., with a three-game series at Oregon State.