Morgan Ettinger carries UNLV softball’s pitching staff

When senior Kwyn Cooper stepped away from UNLV’s softball team early in the season, coach Lisa Dodd had a conversation with her other main starter, senior Morgan Ettinger.

The coach wanted to make sure Ettinger knew there wasn’t any added pressure on her, that she didn’t need to do anything different. It ended up barely being necessary.

“She’s actually the one that said it’s my senior year, I’m ready to go,” Dodd said. “She responded way beyond what we expected.”

Ettinger has thrown 110 of the Rebels’ 221 innings entering the team’s Sunday game at Oregon State, carrying an otherwise young pitching staff. The senior is responsible for 12 of the team’s 19 wins, and ranks ninth in the Mountain West in ERA (2.86) while throwing the third-most innings in the conference.

”She’s been our ace,” Dodd said. “She’s done exactly what we’ve needed from her. She’s thrown the team on her shoulders and said ‘I’ll lead the way.’”

Ettinger has been pitching since she was 9-years old and took up softball to emulate her older sister Tarah. Her sister ended up being her primary batterymate growing up until she left to play at Oklahoma State.

“It worked out really well,” Morgan Ettinger said. “I never had to go out to find a catcher, I always had her.”

This year the Chino Hills, California, native has been throwing more than ever. She’s on pace to smash her previous career high of 128.1 innings with 20 games remaining. She has worked with the team’s trainer this season and taken more days off to handle the workload, and she said she’s felt good despite dealing with arm injuries in the past.

“It’s been nice to not worry about ‘is my arm going to be okay for this game?’” Ettinger said. “I haven’t really had a problem with it.”

Her emphasis this season has been controlling the strike zone, and an area in which she’s shown dramatic improvement. Her walk rate per nine innings this year (2.05) is well below her previous career-best (3.37).

“I think that’s really been important for me this year,” Ettinger said. “You just challenge (batters) and if they get a hit they get a hit.”

The senior has also been willing to challenge teammates this year, as one of two seniors on a team with six freshmen and six new transfers. It’s been good practice for Ettinger, who hopes to be a high school English teacher and softball coach after graduation.

“She’s the one that when things aren’t going well, people are getting a little unfocused, she’ll call them out,” Dodd said. “I think she would be a fantastic coach.”

MORE SOFTBALL

Dodd said her team is still searching for consistency after starting the season 19-14 and 2-4 in the Mountain West.

The Rebels are last in the league in batting average (.274) and fifth in team ERA (3.26).

“The last few weekends we’ve been in a bit of a slump, but we’re well above .500, we’re making progress, we just need to win a few more games and get ourselves back on track,” Dodd said before her team’s series at Oregon State.

WOMEN’S GOLF

The Rebels have one more tournament in Tempe, Arizona, this weekend before heading to Rancho Mirage, California, to defend their Mountain West championship from 2016.

UNLV is ranked 49th nationally in the GolfWeek/Sagarin National Rankings, behind fellow Mountain West teams San Diego State (33rd) and San Jose State (47th).

The Rebels do have the best scoring average in the conference according to Golfstate (292.86).

Contact reporter Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.