The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com's weekly honor roll, in its third 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 second Team of the Week of the 2014 season.
Games of February 17-23, 2014
C Paul Shepherd, Sr., Widener
Shepard had a spectacular opening day for the Widener Pride. He was perfect at the dish with a 5-for-5 performance. Shepard added five RBI to lead Widener to an 18-2 win at Gallaudet. He did not commit an error on the day.
1B Connor Bertsch, So., Concordia-Texas
Bertsch led Concordia-Texas to a three-game ASC sweep of Ozarks last weekend. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound first baseman hit .875 (7-for-8) with four doubles, a homer and three RBIs. His 14 total bases translated to a 1.750 slugging percentage, and the sophomore reached base at a .900 clip.
2B Nick Marti, Jr., Texas-Dallas
Marti went 10-for-17 from the plate (.588) as the Comets fell at Southwestern in a mid-week game before taking 2-of-3 games from East Texas Baptist over the weekend. Marti scored seven runs and added eight RBI over the week.
SS Billy Steel, Sr., Chris. Newport
Steel stayed red hot for the Captains in week two, hitting .444 (4-for-9) with a pair of extra-base hits in three games where he ran his career-best multi-hit streak to five and his season-opening hit streak to six before seeing both snapped in the second game of a doubleheader with Rutgers-Newark. Steel had 10 assists and three putouts in 14 chances.
3B Julian Barzilli, Sr., Whittier
Barzilli single handily lifted the Poets to a three game sweep of Claremont-M-S this past weekend. For the series, Julian finished 7-for-10 for a .700 batting average, including two doubles, three home runs, eight RBI, and seven runs scored. He compiled an on-base percentage of .733, and a slugging percentage of 1.800. In the field during the series, Julian had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage with three punch outs and seven assists.
OF Collin Radack, Sr., Hendrix
Radack extended his hitting streak to eight games as he hit .455 (10-of-22) with seven runs scored, two doubles, a home run, four RBI and three stolen bases in the leadoff spot, helping the Warriors go 3-1 on the week.
OF Joe Rogers, Jr., Lynchburg
Rogers had a weekend for the record books. Not only did Rogers drive in 10 runs over the course of the weekend, he set the school record with eight RBI in one game. He went 4-for-4 in game two against Oneonta with three triples, a double, and the record-setting RBI total. Overall Rogers batted .545 (6-for-11).
OF K.J. Stark, Jr., Mary Hardin-Baylor
Stark batted .474 (9-for-19) in leading the Cru to an undefeated start over four games last week. He scored eight runs, drove in four more and was perfect in four stolen base attempts. Stark slugged .579 and posted an on-base percentage of .545 over the 4-0 week.
DH Noah Sherman, So., Case Western Reserve
Sherman went 4-for-5 with two homers, four RBI and three runs at Guilford on Saturday, all career bests for the Spartan's designated hitter. He batted .667 (6-for-9) with four extra base hits (2 doubles and 2 home runs) and slugged 1.556 on the week.
SP Garrett Kriston, So., Covenant
Kriston was one out away from a seven-inning no-hitter, but settled for a one-hitter in Covenant's 2-0 win over Milligan on Saturday. The sophomore struck out 10 batters and walked three in his complete-game effort. The one-hitter was the second in Kriston's collegiate career.
SP Brandon McClain, Jr., Cortland St.
McClain pitched six shutout innings with eight strikeouts, three hits and no walks in a 4-1 win at No. 13 Salisbury.
SP Thomas Weber, Sr., Hendrix
Weber struck out seven while allowing one hit and three walks in seven scoreless innings to pick up the win against Wabash on Sunday.
RP Stevens Staff
Nine pitchers for Stevens - Gary Boardman, Ryan Patterson, Dan Allen, Brett Viola, Robert Robbins, Daniel McIntyre, Mark Poinsett, Zeph Walters, and Greg Jakusik - combined to throw 10 perfect innings with a total of 19 strikeouts as the Ducks swept Yeshiva in a season opening doubleheader.