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 Fifth Team of the Week of the 2020 season.
Games of March 9-15, 2020
C Dan Gail, Sr., Wooster
Gail was a monster behind the dish last week, as he slashed .563/.667/1.125 over six games. Gail went 9-for-16 with 10 RBIs, seven runs scored, four walks, two doubles, two triples, and a home run.
1B Dan Harwood, Sr., Wooster
Harwood went 15-for-25 with 11 RBIs, nine runs scored, three doubles, three walks, and a homer over six games last week.
2B Trevor Grapenthin, Jr., Covenant
Grapenthin went 3-for-4 with three doubles, two RBIs, and three runs scored in Covenant's 26-2 win over Iowa Wesleyan, the Scots' lone contest of the week. He had a career-high three doubles, walked in the game and turned a double play in the field.
SS Jake Reinhardt, Sr., North Park
Reinhardt slugged three home runs in three games, including a pair against Penn State - Abington en route to a 1.250 slugging percentage. He accumulated nine RBIs in just two games, batting .500, including a career-high five in an 11-1 win over Cornell College.
3B Matt Szczesny, Jr., Gettysburg
Szczesny hit .667 (12-for-18) with nine runs scored, two home runs, and seven RBIs in a 3-1 week for the Bullets. He opened the week by hitting home runs in both end of a doubleheader with Northwestern and finishing a combined 8-for-10 with four runs and six RBI in the split. Szczesny added four more hits and five runs total in wins over Dominican and Marymount.
OF Conner Clark, Jr., Christopher Newport
Clark made seven trips to the plate as the leadoff man for the Captains against Bridgewater (Va.) and came away with five hits including three doubles. Clark drove in four runs and scored four times while adding one stolen base in the game. He was also perfect in the field in three chances. During the game, he moved up to 8th in career runs scored and 3rd in career stolen bases (75)
OF Matt Johnston, Sr., MIT
In his lone game of the week, Johnston tied the NCAA Division III single-game record with four home runs in a road win at Nichols as he ended the game 5-for-6 with eight runs batted in and four runs scored. This was the first four home-run game in Division III since 2009 and he hit .833 overall.
OF Justin Meekins, Sr., Salisbury
Meekins slashed .750/.800/1.500 in two starts for the Sea Gulls last week. The center fielder drove in five runs while scoring another two. Meekins also drew three walks and stole two bases in the two Sea Gull victories. His highlight of the week came in the sixth inning of Thursday's game against No. 11 Shenandoah when he smacked a two-run home run to pull Salisbury within one run at 6-5. It sparked a rally for the Sea Gulls who came back to win the final game of the season, 9-7.
DH Tyler Post, Fr., Texas Lutheran
Post blasted a solo homer and a two-run shot in last week's 16-3 win over DeSales. Post was 2-for-2 with the two home runs and two walks. He had three RBI. Post's first home run came in the middle of TLU's three consecutive home runs in the second inning.
SP Nick Garcia, Jr., Chapman
Garcia helped Chapman to a 17-0 victory over Dallas, tossing 5.0 innings in the win. He allowed just one hit - an infield single - and one walk in his final outing of the season and struck out nine batters.
SP Jordan Patterson, Gr., Hood
Patterson pitched the first five innings of the first no-hitter in school history on the Blazers spring break trip. He did not allow a hit or a walk over five innings, striking out five. Patterson also had a game with three walks, three runs scored, and two steals against Penn College at the plate, and drove in two total runs over the week.
SP Hunter Thornton, So., Wentworth
Thornton tied a program single-game record as he fanned 15 batters over six innings in the Leopards' 8-7, nine-inning win over Lesley. He set the side down by way of a strikeout in each of the first three innings and yielded one run on four hits. He left the game with a 6-1 lead through six innings.
RP Corey Cater, Jr., Trinity (Texas)
Cater earned the victory in relief during No. 5 Trinity's 10-inning win over New Jersey City on Tuesday, sparking the Tigers to a 3-0 record during the week. The right-hander struck out all four batters he faced in the ninth and 10th innings, including a strikeout to close the ninth and the side in the 10th as the Tigers hit a game-winning homer in the bottom of the inning.