The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com's weekly honor roll, in its fourth 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 final Team of the Week of the 2015 season.
Games of April 27-May 3, 2015
C Josh Gall, Fr., Hood
Gall extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a .636 (7-for-11) week. .Six of his seven hits for the week went for extra bases as he slugged 1.364. Gall set a school-record with six RBI in a 23-5 win over a Penn St.-Abington squad tied for first in its conference. He drove in 12 runs in three games and had multiple RBIs in each contest to move into top 10 in Division III for the season.
1B Connor Bertsch Jr., Concordia (Texas)
Bertsch hit .429 (3-for-7) with a double and a triple to lead CTX at the plate this past weekend. Bertsch slugged .857 and reached base at a .538 clip during a three-game set with Mary Hardin-Baylor.
2B Nick Ruscingno, So., New Jersey City
Ruscingno led NJCU on a week where the Gothic Knights knocked off the first place teams in the CUNYAC and Skyline Conferences. In two games he was a combined 8-for-9 (.889) with four RBI, four runs, and 1.111 slugging effort with eight perfect defensive plays.
SS Michael Polcyn, Sr., Ripon
Polcyn batted .475 (10-for-21) as he extended his team-best hitting streak to 17 games. He had six extra-base hits, three doubles and three home runs as he helped Ripon clinch a spot in the Midwest Conference Tournament for the 18th time in the last 20 years. He scored nine runs and drove in eleven.
3B Kyle Engel, 3B, Chicago
Engel batted .630 (17-for-27) on the week with six runs scored. Engel had 16 RBI over six games and tallied at least two hits in each of those games. He broke the school record for doubles in a season with his 20th at Concordia (Wis.).
OF Nate Long, Sr., Lancaster Bible
Long ended his collegiate career in style as he had 11 hits in his final 13 at-bats (.846) to help the Chargers wrap-up their season with a 2-1 week. For the week, Long had three home runs, three doubles, 10 RBI and eight runs scored.
OF Sean Sellers, Jr., LeTourneau
Sellers hit an .750 (6-for-8) to lead the YellowJackets to a three-game sweep. Three of his six hits were for extra bases including a pair of doubles and a home run to lead LeTourneau. He had a team-best six hits and 11 total bases en route to a 1.375 slugging percentage and a .667 on-base percentage.
OF Grant Vanputten, Sr., Calvin
VanPutten had a big final week of the regular season to become Calvin's first MIAA batting champion since 1965. He finished the week batting .654 (17-for-26) with five runs and four RBI. With two doubles and a triple, Vanputten slugged .808.
DH Kaleb Robinson, Sr., Texas-Dallas
Robinson hit .636 (7-for-11) as the Comets closed out the regular season by taking 2-of-3 games at Hardin-Simmons over the weekend. He finished the series with a double and two home runs, boasting a 1.273 slugging percentage over the three games.
SP Dylan Diveney, Fr., Central (Iowa)
Diveney was dominant last week, earning two complete game wins and a save. His most impressive outing was Saturday, as he took a no-hitter into the 10th inning of a scoreless game before a two-out bloop single by Loras ended it. Central would walk-off in the bottom of the inning to secure the freshman's fifth win of the season.
SP Josh Fleming, Fr., Webster
Fleming continued his stellar freshman campaign on the mound by throwing a complete game, nine inning shutout in a 3-0 win at Fontbonne. Fleming scattered four hits and walked none, while striking out 12 Griffins.
SP Charles Thielmann, Sr., Kean
Thielmann tossed two complete game wins in the NJAC Tournament leading Kean to their sixth title. Thielmann walked five and gave up 17 hits in 18.0 innings. He struck out 16 and allowed just three earned runs.
RP Michael LaBeau, So., Castleton
Michael LaBeau made three relief appearances this past week for the Spartans. After tossing a scoreless inning against Union, the sophomore pitched a scoreless eighth in Castleton's 4-1, opening round win over Maine-Farmington. He followed that up the next day by throwing three more innings of scoreless relief to pick up his first career save against Thomas.