IRVINE, Calif. — A dominant force inside the pitcher's circle for ART U Softball, freshman Brenna Mitchell earned her first collegiate shutout last week and has been named Pacific West Conference Newcomer of the Week as announced by the PacWest on Monday.

The week began with a tough battle at No. 19 Humboldt State, but as conference play resumed back in the Bay Area, Mitchell was right at home with her game. In her 10th start of the year at Notre Dame de Namur on Mar. 13, the Fairfield native struck out the side in the second inning, a sign of things to come on that day. She hung tough, retired the final seven batters of the contest, and delivered her first shutout with a season-high eight strikeouts. In game two, Mitchell would make a relief appearance, going 2.1 innings with no runs allowed and five strikeouts.

Mitchell's stretch of scoreless innings moved to 15.0 as she kept Dominican off the scoreboard for the first 5.2 innings on Mar. 14. That game she would still win after going a complete 7.0 innings with only a single unearned run allowed. She made her fourth appearance in two days in the second contest, throwing another 2.2 innings in relief.

Over the week's final four games, she was 2-1 and posted a 0.47 ERA while allowing just two runs (one earned) in 19.0 inninngs with 15 strikeouts.

Mitchell currently ranks seventh in the PacWest with a 2.38 ERA and fourth in strikeouts with 49 thus far.