February 14, 2017

D3baseball.com Team of the Week

The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com's weekly honor roll, in its sixth season of recognizing the top performers at each of nine positions from the previous week. Players are selected from nominations from their school's sports information directors. This is the first Team of the Week of the 2017 season.

Games of January 29 - February 12, 2017

C  Colby Schmidt, So., Southwestern

Schmidt led Southwestern to a 2-1 record at the Firehouse Classic last weekend in Montgomery, Alabama. The Liberty Hill, Texas, native hit .615 (8-for-13) with three doubles and seven RBIs. Schmidt also totaled 11 bases, which translated to an .846 slugging percentage. He also reached base at a .643 clip over the weekend. Schmidt provided the walk-off single in Southwestern's come-from-behind 13-12 win over Oglethorpe on Friday.

1B  Nicholas Baham, So., Christopher Newport

Baham led the Captains offense at the Piedmont College Early Spring Classic by hitting .533 (8-for-15) with four extra-base hits including two home runs. Baham drove in six runs and scored five times. His most impressive game in three starts this weekend came against No. 6 Birmingham-Southern, in which he went 4-for-5 and fell just a double shy of the cycle while driving in four runs and scoring twice. He also led off with a single in the top of the 9th inning against Methodist to set up a four-run come-from-behind win for the Captains. He did not strike out in 15 at-bats and played a flawless first base, without an error in 30 total chances.

2B  Dave Tatoian, So., Gwynedd Mercy

Tatoian had a hand in eight of the Griffin's 12 runs in a 20-12 loss to Salisbury. Tatoian notched career highs in hits and RBIs as he batted .800 (4-for-5) in his team's season opener. He scored three runs and drove in five. With a double and a home run on the day, he is slugging 1.600.

SS  Jeffrey Butler, So., Randolph-Macon

Butler reached base safely in his first eight plate appearances of the season with five hits and three walks. For the weekend he batted .833 (5-for-6), scoring twice and driving in three. Butler also swiped three bases in three attempts for the Yellow Jackets.

3B  Austin Ferlita, Sr., Oglethorpe

Ferlita batted .500 (7-for-14) in the opening weekend for the Storm Petrels. He hit two home runs for a .929 slugging percentage. In three games, he scored five times with six RBI.

OF  Kyle Mathews, Sr., Eastern Mennonite

Mathews had a great start to his final year, batting .800 (4-for-5) with two walks, two runs and two RBI in Saturday's season-opening doubleheader against Penn State-Altoona. He was 3-for-3 in the opener and added a hit with two walks in the nightcap, being retired just once in seven trips to the plate. Mathews had two doubles and added a stolen base.

OF  Justin Meekins, Fr., Salisbury

Meekins led Salisbury to two wins on the weekend. He batted .571 (4-for-7) with three runs scored and four RBI. With a home run among his safeties, he slugged 1.000.

OF  Michael Schimpf, Sr., Centenary (La.)

In the first two weeks of the season, Schimpf has been on fire, recording at least one hit in all seven games this season, hitting for the cycle in a 9-4 win over Redlands. Schimpf is hitting .481 (13-for-27) for the season with 12 runs scored, eight RBI, two doubles, a triple and two home runs. His slugging percentage of .852 leads the the conference through the first two weeks.

DH  Matthew Macey, Jr., Whittier

Macey batted .500 (7-for-14) in the Poets opening four games. He is responsible for 11 runs, scoring three and driving in eight. Five of his seven hits went for extra bases, four doubles and a home run.

SP  Billy Dimlow, So., Emory

Dimlow was lights out in his season debut for the Eagles, tossing 7.0 shutout innings as Emory took game two versus Sewanee 3-0. Dimlow did not allow a base runner until two outs in the fourth inning, retiring the first 11 Tiger batters, and finished the outing with only two hits allowed. He racked up a career-high 12 strikeouts while not issuing a free pass.

SP  Kaleb Kirk, Jr., Centenary (La.)

Kirk (1-0) has had quite the start to the season with more strikeouts (18) than innings pitched. He has allowed only seven hits through 13 innings pitched. Against East Texas Baptist's high-powered offense Friday night, he went 8 innings and struck out 10 without allowing a runner past second all game. He has yet to give up a run this season.

SP  Felix Minjarez, Jr., Redlands

Minjarez won both his starts, going 2-0 to start the season. In the Bulldog's opener, he pitched 5.0 innings giving up four hits and no walks with eight strikeouts. on the following weekend, Minjarez went 6.0 innings with four hits and a walk, giving up three unearned runs.

RP  William Gibbons, So., Berry

Gibbons led the Vikings to back-to-back wins over nationally ranked opponents, including the reigning national champions last weekend. In his first save opportunity against No. 20 Texas-Tyler, he tossed two innings of one-hit ball with two strikeouts to seal the win. The next day, against No. 7 Trinity (Tex.), Gibbons closed out the ninth allowing one hit and striking out two for his second save of the weekend. For the week, he appeared in three contests pitching four total innings and only allowing two hits and six strikeouts.