The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com's weekly honor roll, in its second 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 2013 season.

Games of February 11-17, 2013

C  Joseph Odom, Jr. Huntingdon

Odom batted .500 with a .917 slugging percentage, leading Huntingdon to a 3-0 week. Odom drove in six runs and score three. The junior backstop threw out two runners in three chances and played error free.

1B  Stephen Gates, Sr, Millsaps

Gates, Millsaps leadoff hitter, batted .444 (8-for-18) as the Majors defeated no. 6 Birmingham-Southern enroute to winning the Piedmont College Tournament. Gates drove in 11 runs and scored twice.

2B  Brandon Hollier, Jr., Concordia (Texas)

Hollier, the ASC-West Division Hitter of the Week helped the Tornados win five games over a four-day span this past week. He batted .562 (9-for-16), with a double in 16 at-bats. Hollier scored five times, driving in five.

SS  Jason Carter, Jr., Averett

Carter batted .833 (5-for-6) as Averett defeated Guilford and LaGrange this week. Carter reached base in seven of eight plate appearances for an .875 on-base percentage . He scored three times.

3B  Kevin Francke, Sr., Trinity (Texas)

Francke posted a monster week offensively, leading the Tigers to three victories to open up the team’s home schedule. Francke hit .818 (9-for-11) with four doubles and a home run. He also led the team with seven runs scored, seven RBI, and a slugging percentage of 1.455.

OF  Bill Root, Jr., Salisbury

Junior center fielder Root hit .571 (4-for-7) with two doubles, two RBI and three walks for ninth ranked Salisbury in a pair of wins this week. He slugged .857, got on base at a .700 clip and stole one base.

OF  Preston Grissom, So., Christopher Newport

Grissom was a perfect 5-for-5 on the basepaths, and scored a team-high eight runs this week in four starts at center field. He led the team in hitting, with a .471 avg (8-for-17), posting two extra-base hits and four walks.

OF Michael Patterson, Sr., New Jersey City

Patterson, the NJAC Player of the Week, had four consecutive multi-hit games to start the season, batting .562 (9-for-16). He scored three times with three RBI on the week. Patterson also played flawless defense in center with 10 putouts.

DH  Zach Whiddon, Fr., Mary Hardin-Baylor

Whiddon started his collegiate career as the leadoff hitter for Mary Hardin-Baylor. He batted .455 (5-for-11) in four games for the Crusaders. Whiddon scored five runs and drove in three.

SP  Jacob Perschke, Jr., Hendrix

Perschke struckout 13 batters, the third most in school history, in nine innings. He allowed one run, seven hits and no walks in a no decision at Mary Hardin-Baylor.

SP  Derek Dallas, Sr. Texas-Dallas

Dallas shattered the Texas-Dallas strikeout record and tied the ASC single-game mark with 17 strikeouts in a blanking of conference foe Sul Ross State. Dallas tossed his second career complete-game shutout, scattering five hits without a walk in a 5-0 win over the Lobos.

SP Kevin Johnson, Jr., Carelton

In a season opening doubleheader with Crown (Minn.), Johnson faced the minimum over his 5.0 innings and collected 5 strikeouts as part of a combined no-hitter. At the plate in the doubleheader, he reached base seven times and went combined 2-for-4 with six runs scored and five RBI.

RP  Robert Weller, Jr., Pomoma-Pitzer

Weller picked up his third save of the season in three opportunities by getting the final four outs of the final game of a three-game conference sweep of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a 4-2 win. He entered the game with the go-ahead run at the plate in the eighth and got a strikeout, then worked a 1-2-3 ninth. In his three saves so far this season, he has retired all 11 batters he has faced.