The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com's weekly honor roll, in its inaugural season of recognizing the top performance at each of thirteen positions from the previous week. This is the third Team of the Week of the 2012 season.
Games of March 12-19, 2012
C Tyler Bennett, Sr., Salisbury
Bennett batted .600 (9-for-15) with six runs scored, six RBI, four doubles and two stolen bases as No. 8 Salisbury went 4-0 with a midweek win over Albertus Magnus and weekend sweep at Mary Washington. Bennett's best top performance came in a 9-4 game two win over UMW when he hit 4-for-4 with three doubles, three runs and three RBI.
1B Apolinar De la Cruz, Fr., Wheaton (Mass.)
De la Cruz batted .417 with 10 hits (one 2B), three runs, six RBI, a .458 slugging pct. and a .440 OBP as the Lyons recorded a perfect 5-0 week. De la Cruz registered three multi-hit games and drove in the game-winning run in three games (Anderson, Saint Joseph's, MIT).
2B Clark Sims, Sr., Hendrix
Sims hit .636 with a 1.091 slugging and .733 on-base percentage to help Hendrix go 3-0 on the week. He was 7-for-11 with a double, two triples, two RBI and eight runs scored.
SS Ryan Normoyle, Sr., Washington College
Named the Centennial Conference Baseball Player of the Week, Normoyle hit .600 and broke the school records for career stolen bases and career RBI as the Shoremen went 6-0 last week to run their win streak to 11 games. Normoyle went 12-for-20 at the plate with three doubles, three triples, a home run, eight runs scored, nine RBI, four walks, and seven stolen bases.
3B Colby Gee, So., Ithaca
Gee's first career home run was a two-out two-run seventh-inning HR against Claremont to start rally that ended in 10-inning walk-off win. He shared the team lead with 11 hits on seven-game spring trip despite not playing in two games as he helped the Bombers to best spring trip record (5-2/.714) program has ever recorded.
OF Brandon Hannon, So., Emory
Hannon led all UAA players in batting average and on base percentage at the UAA Championships, setting a conference record with 10 walks during the championships. During Emory's Championship-clinching game against Washington (Mo.) he threw out a runner at home plate to preserve a 2-0 Emory lead
OF Michael LaTempa, Jr., Cortland St.
LaTempa, the SUNYAC Player of the Week, homered twice and finished 5-for-5 in Cortland's 10-2 win at Mt. St. Vincent. For the week he batted .667 with five runs scored and three RBIs.
OF Jake Wyand, Jr., Texas-Dallas
Wyand went 10-for-17 with three doubles and scored five runs over a 3-1 week. In his best game of the week, Wyand was 4-fo-4 with two RBI against Univ. Dallas.
DH Pat Cody, Jr., Gettysburg
Cody hit .471 (16-for-34) with 10 runs and 11 RBIs in a 5-3 week for Gettysburg in Florida. In his top performance of the week, he went 4-for-4 with five RBIs, two runs, and a double in a 19-9 win over Colby.
SP Justin D'Amato, So., St. John Fisher
D'Amato threw a complete game (7 innings) against Westminster (Pa.), earning a 14-1 victory to move to 3-0 on the season. He allowed five hits, no runs and one walk while striking out a career-high 14 batters.
SP Rob Dittrick, Jr., Pacific (Ore.)
Dittrick earned his fourth straight victory in a gem, allowing just one hit in seven innings to go along with seven strikeouts as the Boxers scored a 16-1 rout in the first game of their three-game set with Lewis & Clark on Saturday. Dittrick faced just two batters over the minimum, with both reaching by way of error in the first inning.
SP Eric Knight, Jr., Oberlin
Eric Knight inked his name into the Oberlin record books, tossing a no-hitter on Sunday afternoon in Oberlin's 3-0 blanking of D'Youville. Knight was dominant on the mound as he struck out a career-high 10 hitters, walking just one hitter.
RP Tyler Brunnemann, Jr., Hardin-Simmons
Brunnemann was simply overpowering in three pressure-packed situations for the Cowboys in a series win at No. 12 Concordia. For the week he worked nine and one-third innings and allowed only six hits and struck out 16 batters.