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| Webster starting pitcher Matt Mulhearn (pictured) and Adrian shortstop Ryan Dorow appeared on the Team of the Week list the most times. d3photography.com photo by Steve Frommell |
The D3baseball.com Team of the week will be entering its twelfth season in 2023 and we took time to look at the the players that we have honored for more than a decade. 126 different teams have been honored with a low of five in the Covid year of 2022 to 13 in four different years.
We have called out 1730 names from 316 different schools since the first awardees in 2012. Two players have appeared on the list the most times (five). Adrian shortstop Ryan Dorow (once in 2015 and twice in 2016 and 2017) and Webster starting pitcher Matt Mulhearn (once in 2018 and four times in 2021). A total of 199 player have appeared at multiple times (five-times - 2, four times - 7, three times - 38 and two-times - 152). Hayden Tsutsui made the team in all four years that he played for Carelton. Mulhearn made the team for a record four times in 2021. In one case, Colin McCarthy was named twice with two different schools. He made the team in 2012 with Catholic and 2014 with Johns Hopkins. Jack Hollinshead, Wittenberg earned the honor three weeks in a row with Rob Marinec, North Central (Ill.) making the team in 2018 and again in 2022, four years between appearances on the team of the week.
It would surprise nobody that the majority of the performances are done by the senior class at a 41.9% clip (734 players). The trend holds for the junior class with 547 players, sophomores with 310 spots and 136 first year players making the team. A small number of graduate students (12) have made the teams with two-thirds in the two years post-Covid.
Three schools have earned a awardee at each of the nine positions. They are Adrian (26 players), Cortland (35 players) and Marietta (19 players). Christopher Newport has 33 players who have earned an award and is tops among all schools.
Accounting majors will quickly notice that our configuration of four infielders, three outfielders, a catcher, designated hitter and four pitchers (three starters and a reliever) leaves us with 92 extra players. Occasionally, there are two candidates for a position that cannot be separated and in these cases two names will be named for a single position. This has happened in four cases with infielders and 15 times with outfielders. Four additional catching and a single designated hitter slots were awarded. It is easier to add an addition pitcher and sometimes the pitching staff can swell to six from the standard four man pitching staff. A total of 75 additional pitchers were added over the years, 22 relievers and 43 starters. The remaining three spots were for utility players. In 2023, we will be adding a utility position to the team of the week.
The Team of the Week has the usual players listed but that does not prevent us from honoring some exceptional performances beyond the usual awardee and position. In one case the entire Stevens relief staff was honored as a group when they put together a perfect 10 innings with 19 by strikeout at the start of the 2014 season. In 2019, Occidental's Michael Netzel earned a spot with three extra-base pitch hits, the only time so far that we honored such an accomplishment.