The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com's weekly honor roll, in its tenth 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 2021 season.
Games of March 22-28, 2021
C Chris Penna, Jr., Rhodes
Penna held a 2.200 slugging percentage, .800 batting average (4-for-5) and .889 on-base percentage for the week. His three extra-base hits went for a double and two home runs. Penna scored three runs and drove in six. He caught the only runner trying to steal a base as catcher.
1B Ty Kueper, So., Fontbonne
Kueper batted a team-high .583 on the week (7-for-12), including hitting his first two homers on the season against Eureka. He added two triples for a 1.417 slugging. He scored eight runs with nine RBIs.
2B Conner Butler, Jr., Roanoke
Butler batted .600 (9-for-10) over the week for the Maroon. He score a run and drove in four with two stolen bases on two attempts. With a double, he slugged .667 as he got on base at a .647 clip.
SS Luke Fennelly, Sr., Loras
In a four-game ARC series against Buena Vista, Fennelly went 7-for-12 at the plate (.583), hit one double, two home runs, one stolen base, walked twice, scored five runs and four RBIs.
3B Jordan Haworth, Jr., Pacific Lutheran
Jordan hit .500 (5-for-10) at the plate with seven RBIs, and three runs scored. Four of his five hits went for extra bases, including two doubles and two home runs (1.300 slugging). He drove in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth in the series opener against George Fox and exited the weekend with a 15-game hitting streak.
OF Alex Ashby, Jr., Louisiana College
Ashby batted .700 (7-for-10) on the week with four runs and five RBIs. In addition to a double and triple, he moved from a 4-way tie for team lead in home runs at the start of the series against Howard Payne into a 2-way tie for the team lead after hitting his 5th of the season. Got on base 75% of the time he came to the plate in the series and successfully stole one base.
OF Garrett Callaghan, Sr., Ithaca
Callaghan went 7-for-13 (.538) over three games last week with three home runs, nine RBI, four runs scored, two doubles, one triple and two walks.
OF Max Ruvo, Jr., Washington College
Ruvo hit .700 (7-for-10) with a home run, three RBI and six runs scored in a doubleheader sweep of McDaniel on Saturday. In game two, he highlighted his 4-for-6 performance with the game-tying single in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at 12-12 and would score the winning run to cap the 13-12 win Ruvo had a .727 on-base percentage and slugged 1.200.
DH Jack Hollinshead, Sr., Wittenberg
Hollinshead hit four home runs in a row on Saturday afternoon as the Tigers split with the Spartans from Case Western Reserve. Closing out game one with his first home run of the day, Hollinshead went on to have his second three home run game of the season and the third of his career. Hollinshead started out game two with three straight home runs, as the Red and White took game two with a 19-6 win. Hollinshead logged a .615/.688/1.538 slash line through three games with 13 at-bats.
SP Nick Carpenter, So., UW-Stevens Point
Carpenter struck out 14 Lions in a 10-0 win over Finlandia on March 24th. He allowed just one walk and a hit batter in his six innings of work.
SP Jay DiBacco, Sr., Wooster
DiBacco fired a two-hit shutout against No. 25 Denison on Saturday. DiBacco faced three batters over the minimum and didn't allow a Big Red baserunner to reach scoring position until the final inning. After allowing a leadoff single to start the game, DiBacco retired 10 straight Denison hitters.
SP Matt O'Sullivan, Sr., UW-Whitewater
O'Sullivan tallied 17 strikeouts, tied for the second-most in one game in program history, and retired the first 13 hitters of the game via strikeout during the Warhawks' 10-0 victory over Finlandia in seven innings on Friday at Prucha Field at Miller Stadium. He allowed only one hit in the contest, was perfect through 6.1 innings and faced the minimum number of batters after UW-Whitewater turned a double play to end the seventh.
SP Sam Westermeyer, Jr., St. Olaf
Westermeyer threw St. Olaf's first no-hitter in nearly 22 years in St. Olaf's 6-0 win over Augsburg in the opener of a doubleheader sweep on Monday evening at U.S. Bank Stadium. The junior struck out seven in the seven-inning no-hitter while allowing just one walk and hitting two batters. The no-hitter was the first by an Ole since Charlie Brookins no-hit Macalester on April 17, 1999 and was the fifth in NCAA Division III baseball this season.
RP David Kruis, So., Elmira (N.Y.)
As a dual-sport student-athlete, Kruis has spent the spring with the men's basketball team, but finally made his baseball debut this weekend. He pitched two games out of the bullpen and was near-perfect, allowing only one hit across 3.1 innings of work. He threw a career-high 2.1 innings, allowing one hit with one strikeout on Thursday against SUNY Canton. On Saturday against the 'Roos, he closed Elmira's 4-2 win for his first career save, tossing a 1-2-3 top of the seventh with one strikeout on just 10 pitches.