Sophomore Bridgette Hutton was named Mountain West Pitcher of the Week for the first time in her collegiate career, the conference announced Tuesday. The award is the first for Colorado State this season.

Hutton began her week last Tuesday with a complete game victory over Northern Colorado. She allowed two hits and one earned run with a career high eight strikeouts in the game.

The eight strikeouts pushed Hutton into the team lead in the category (55). She added three more during her two appearances against UNLV last weekend. Her 3.70 ERA ranks 15th best in the Mountain West. Hutton’s ERA for conference games ranks 7th in conference at 3.09

“I think, for the preseason, it just really opened my eyes to how much harder I need to work because our conference is very good,” Hutton said on her changes made from non-conference play to MW play. “The adjustment was just having a stronger mentality, working on every pitch and going hard, 100 percent, every day.”

Hutton helped lower her conference ERA on Sunday with a complete game three-hit shutout against the Rebels, her second complete game shutout of the year.

“Snapping my ball a lot smoother…we have really been working that in practice,” Hutton said on how she has been able to pitch well over a complete game. “My mentality just was a lot stronger those games.”

She was able to strikeout only one Rebel in the game Sunday, however, causing the defense behind her to play well, something she is very thankful for.

“I feel like the award should have gone to our defense,” Hutton said. “They made all the plays and they pretty much did everything, I just put the ball where I was supposed to.”

The Rams and Hutton are back in action this weekend when they travel to take on the Nevada Wolfpack in their second to last conference series of the year, starting Friday at 5 p.m. MT.

Collegian sports reporter Austin White can be reached by email at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @ajwrules44