The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com's weekly honor roll, in its eighth 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 fifth Team of the Week of the 2019 season.
Games of March 4-10, 2019
C Tim Ortega, Jr., Ferrum
Ortega batted .692 (9-for-13) with two home runs, a double and a triple to help Ferrum post a 3-0 mark last week, including a pair of ODAC wins over Eastern Mennonite March 10 on the road. He drove in six and scored seven.
1B Davis Mikell, Jr., Castleton
Mikell continued his absolutely scorching start to the season with a 7-for-7 (1.000) performance at the plate during a doubleheader sweep at Bard on Saturday. The junior infielder recorded five extra-base hits, three doubles and two triples for a 2.000 slugging percentage. He earned three walks, driving in four and scoring eight times.
2B Matt Ramirez, Jr., George Fox
Ramirez guided the Bruins to a sweep over Lewis & Clark, hitting .615 (8-for-13) during the series. He recorded a .667 on-base percentage and a 1.308 slugging percentage. He had two home runs, six RBIs and six runs scored.
SS Dylan Beasley, Jr., Berry
Beasley led the Berry to a series sweep of the Sewanee Tigers over the weekend. In the three-game set, he hit .600 (6-for-10) with a pair of triples, six RBIs and five runs scored. He also had a 1.000 slugging percentage and a .667 OBP.
3B Mike Nickles, Jr., Randolph-Macon
Nickles went 5-for-7 (.714) in an ODAC DH sweep at Guilford with three doubles and a triple. He scored five runs, with five RBIs and two stolen bases. Nickles walked twice, reaching base in 7 of 9 plate appearances for on-base percentage of .778. Went 2-2 on stolen bases. Had slugging percentage of 1.429.
OF Jason Garcia, Jr., George Fox
Garcia went 10-for-14 at the plate for a team-high .714 batting average in the three-game sweep over Lewis & Clark. He recorded a .733 on-base percentage and an .857 slugging percentage. He also recorded two doubles,five runs scored, four RBIs and two stolen bases.
OF Josh Goulet, Sr., Plymouth St.
Goulet got off to a hot start at the plate, posting a .500/.467/1.571 slash line through Plymouth State's first three games of the year. He's 7-for-14 at the dish, with all seven hits going for extra bases (three doubles, four home runs), and he tied a program record with three home runs in a wild 11-10 win over Rockford on Saturday. He leads the Panthers with seven runs scored and nine RBI on the week.
OF Noah Payne, Sr., Howard Payne
Payne batted .583 (7-for-12) with nine runs sored and six RBIs in a three game sweep of Belhaven. He also set the Howard Payne school record for triples in a season after his four triple weekend.
DH Jimmy Monaghan, Jr., Salisbury
Monaghan hit a robust .818 (9-for-11) while recording three hits in each of his three starts for the Sea Gulls. Monaghan accounted for a double, a run scored, two RBI and two walks with his efforts.
SP Jake Binder, Sr., Ithaca
Binder carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning of Ithaca's 2-0 victory over No. 18 California Lutheran on Sunday afternoon in Thousand Oaks, Calif. and finished things off for a one-hit shutout. Binder was perfect through seven innings before issuing a walk and recorded the first out of the ninth before allowing a single. He recorded five strikeouts in the contest and needed just 100 pitches for the complete game win.
SP Tyler McDonald, Sr., Monmouth (Ill.)
McDonald came within a whisker of a no-hitter in Monmouth's 3-0 blanking of Maritime last Thursday. The senior surrendered just two hits while striking out 10 and walking no one in the nine-inning complete game victory. McDonald faced just two over the minimum in his first win this season.
SP Lake Pry, So., Grove City
Pry threw Grove City's first no-hitter in 19 years Thursday when he no-hit Penn State New Kensington. Pry struck out 13 men, the most by a Grove City pitcher since Erik Arnesen in 2006. Pry walked one batterin his 8.0 innings pitched.
RP Dominic Fusco, Sr., WPI
Fusco pitched four perfect innings and struck out 11 of the 12 batters he faced while earning the save in a trio of one-run games. He made his season debut with a save on Monday versus Waynesburg (Pa) and then closed out both games of a doubleheader against Wentworth Wednesday. Fusco later finished the week on the mound for the Engineers where he struck out two of the final three batters of the trip.
RP Collin Hoffmann, Jr., Otterbein
Hoffmann recorded a save in three-straight games on successive days against Alvernia, U.S. Merchant Marine and Augustana. He entered with at least one runner on base in all three outings and was virtually untouchable by not allowing a hit, as 11 of his 16 outs were strikeouts.