The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com's weekly honor roll, in its ninth 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 2020 season.
Games of February 17-23, 2020
C Douglas Smith, Sr., Mt. Aloysius
Smith slashed .400/.500/1.600 to start the season behind the plate in Mt. Aloysius's sweep of Chatham. He score three runs and drove in three on two hits, both home runs. He a perfect 1.000 with the glove, throwing out three of four runners who attempted to steal a base.
1B Max Ruvo, So., Washington College
Ruvo hit .750, going 6-for-8 with four triples, one double, nine RBI, 15 total bases and three runs scored. He slugged 1.875 and had a .778 on-base percentage.
2B Brian Williams, Jr., Birmingham Southern
Williams hit .750 during Birmingham-Southern's three-game home series against North Park, going 6-for-8 from the plate with a home run, five RBI, seven runs scored, and three walks. Williams put the ball in play in each at-bat, never striking out. He also swiped four bags and was never caught stealing.
SS Jimmie Gentry, Sr., Albright
Gentry batted .600 (3-for-5) with a 1.400 slugging (single, double, and home run) over the weekend for Albright. He scored four times, driving in another four runs.
3B Hunter Riley, Jr., Puget Sound
Riley batted .500 as he homered in each of the three games in the NWC-opening series at Willamette. In all five of his seven hits were for extra bases (two doubles, three home runs) giving him a 1.286 slugging percentage. Riley had six runs scored and eight RBIs.
OF Bobby Heck, Jr., Gwynedd Mercy
Heck best game was on Saturday against the host Gallaudet in the Bison Classic where he went 4-for-7 with six RBIs, six runs scored, three triples, a double, a walk and hit by pitch. The at-bats, runs scored and triples tied a single-game program record as the team scored a school mark of 40 runs.
OF Bret Leiferman, Sr., Concordia (TX)
Leiferman had at least two hits in all three games as the Tornados completed a three-game sweep of Belhaven over the weekend. Leiferman had two hits in the middle game with the Blazers, becoming the program's all-time hits leader with 213 hits for his career.
OF Justin Rios, So., North Central (Ill.)
Rios scored five runs and batted in seven in three games as the Cardinals started the season 3-0. He batted .571 with a triple and home run. He slugged 0.929.
DH Devin Hooper, So., Schreiner
Devin helped lead the Mountaineers to a 5-0 week going 13-for-16 (.813) with five dobles, two home runs, and 14 RBIs. He also had a win on the mound, going 5 innings with 6 Ks.
SP Dylan Gotto, Jr., Wartburg
Gotto tossed a complete game shutout during an 8-0 win over Bethel at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday. He broke a Wartburg single-game record with 16 strikeouts in seven innings, allowing just two hits and one base on balls.
SP Charlie Klemm, Jr., North Central (Ill.)
Klemm tossed six innings of no-hit ball, striking out seven while walking two in North Central's 16-1 seven-inning win over Wilmington. Was pulled after six innings with a no-hitter intact due to an early season pitch limit.
SP Daniel Rivera, Sr. Eastern Nazarene
Rivera threw a complete-game shutout and racked up 13 strikeouts while yielding zero walks and just three singles as Eastern Nazarene blanked Wentworth 2-0 in the second game of the team's season-opening doubleheader sweep.
SP Jeff Serin, Sr., Drew
Serin enjoyed a tremendous season debut for the Rangers, firing five scoreless innings to pick up the win in Drew's 3-1 victory at No. 13 Kean. He struck out nine batters and allowed only one hit. He also helped himself by picking a runner off first base in the third, and he went on to retire seven of the last eight batters he faced before exiting.
RP Tyler Montemayor, Jr., Dallas
Montemayor made two appearances out of the Crusaders bullpen, tossing three shutout innings and picking up a pair of saves to help his team sweep Arlington Baptist this weekend. Montemayor did not allow a hit or walk in either outing. He threw two shutout frames of a seven-inning victory to start the series, and then locked down a save in the finale with a perfect ninth. In the first outing, the junior induced four ground outs and fanned two.