Henrico Times

CAA Baseball Weekly Awards - March 6

Northeastern senior outfielder Alex Lane and Charleston senior infielder Joseph Mershon shared CAA baseball Player of the Week honors, while William & Mary grad student right-hander Cory Wall was honored as the CAA Pitcher of the Week. UNCW freshman first baseman Tanner Thach was selected as the CAA Rookie of the Week for the second time.

CAA Baseball Co-Player of the Week
Alex Lane, Northeastern – Sr., OF/DH – Andover, Mass./St. John’s Prep

Lane batted .429 (6-14) with three homers, five runs scored and 10 RBI’s in Northeastern’s three-game sweep at USF. The senior belted a pair of three-run homers in Friday’s 15-3 win, delivered another 3-run shot and scored three runs in Saturday’s 13-8 triumph and was 3-for-5 with a RBI in Sunday’s 8-7 victory.

CAA Baseball Co-Player of the Week
Joseph Mershon, Charleston – Sr., IF – Taylors, S.C./Eastside

Mershon batted .563 (9-16) with three doubles, a triple, a homer, seven runs scored and eight RBI’s in Charleston’s 4-0 week. The senior had three extra-base hits and drove in six in an 11-3 win over Michigan State on Friday, went 3-for-5 and scored twice in a 14-6 victory over Air Force, and was 2-for-4 with three runs scored in a 10-3 triumph over Michigan State. He also walked four times.

CAA Baseball Pitcher of the Week
Cory Wall, William & Mary – Gr., RHP – Roaring Brook, Pa./North Poanco

Wall went 1-0 with a save in two appearances last week, recording 10 strikeouts with no walks over 7.0 innings. The right-hander earned a win against George Mason after allowing a run on two hits over 3.0 frames. He followed with a 12-out save against Canisius, giving up just two hits over 4.0 shutout innings and striking out eight.

CAA Baseball Rookie of the Week
Tanner Thach, UNCW – Fr., 1B – Belvidere, N.C./Perquimans County

Thach batted .381 (8-21) with three doubles, two homers and eight RBI’s in UNCW’s five games last week. The freshman had at least one hit in all five games, including smacking two homers and driving in five in a 15-9 victory over Columbia on Saturday. He also knocked in the game-tying run in Sunday’s 13-9 triumph. Thach slugged .810 for the week.

Conference notes:

CONFERENCE PLAY STARTS ON FRIDAY: Conference play in the CAA gets underway on Friday with five series on the schedule. Defending champ Hofstra opens at Delaware, preseason favorite Charleston visits William & Mary, Elon entertains Northeastern, North Carolina A&T hosts Towson and UNCW welcomes Monmouth.

CHARLESTON (7-3, 0-0 CAA): The Cougars extended their winning streak to six with a 4-0 week that included victories over Coastal Carolina, Michigan State and Air Force. Joseph Mershon batted .563 (9-16) with five extra-base hits, seven runs scored and eight RBI’s. He drove in a career-best six runs in a 11-3 win over MSU on Friday. Trotter Harlan was 8-for-15 with nine RBI’s in the three weekend victories. Will Baumhofer had a go-ahead, two-run double in the 8th vs. Coastal and homered against MSU. William Privette didn’t allow a hit over 4.0 innings in two appearances while striking out four.

DELAWARE (4-7, 0-0 CAA): The Blue Hens had a 1-3 week, falling 8-3 at #18 Maryland and dropping two of three vs. Rider. Shorstop JJ Freeman had a hit in all four games and batted .411 (7-17) with two doubles, a triple and three RBI’s. Tyler Leach was 2-for-2 and drove in three in Sunday’s 13-2 win against Rider. Freshman Owen Petrich was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles at Maryland. Tyler Strechay picked up his first save on Sunday, holding Rider without a hit over the final 3.0 innings and fanning four. 

ELON (7-5, 0-0 CAA): The Phoenix bounced back from a pair of losses to UNCG by recording a three-game weekend sweep of Quinnipiac. Outfielder Justin Cassella batted .583 (7-12) for the week with a double, homer and six runs scored. He also stole four bases. Charlie Granatell delivered a walk-off RBI single in the 10th as Elon edged QU 9-8 on Friday. Granatell had a pair of 3-for-5 efforts in the QU series. Freshman Ryan Sprock turned in another strong Sunday start, holding QU to one run on four hits over 6.0 innings and striking out four. He lowered his ERA to 2.40 for the season.

HOFSTRA (3-7, 0-0 CAA): The Pride was swept in a three-game weekend series at Nevada, which included a pair of one-run setbacks. Ryan Morash paced Hofstra offensively, tallying four hits and four RBI’s in the series. Will Kennedy has nine hits in his last 13 at-bats and is currently riding a seven-game hitting streak. Santino Rosso had three hits in the final two games at Nevada and is batting .345 for the year. Reliever Tristan Nemjo threw a perfect inning in the opener at Nevada and has delivered three straight 1-2-3 performances. 

MONMOUTH (5-4, 0-0 CAA): The Hawks swept Merrimack in a three-game series over the weekend. Monmouth’s offense broke loose for 36 runs.  Phil Stahl batted .500 (7-14) with a homer and seven RBI’s. He drove in at least two runs in all three games. Austin Denlinger has recorded at least two hits in seven of MU’s nine games and leads the CAA with a .463 batting average. Alex Barker and Dante Ciaramella combined to record a program-record 18 strikeouts last Friday. Barker fanned 11 over the first 5.0 innings. Ciaramella struck out eight and gave up just one hit over the final 4.0 shutout frames to pick up a save.

NORTH CAROLINA A&T (5-6, 0-0 CAA): The Aggies split four games last week, falling at #23 South Carolina before picking up wins over Western Michigan (8-7) and Bucknell (16-2) over the weekend. Catcher Canyon Brown batted .471 (8-17) with a homer, seven runs scored and five RBI’s for the week. Chris Moss and Luis Espinal each homered and drove in three against Bucknell while Shemar Dalton was 4-for-5 with two RBI’s. Moss also delivered a two-run double in the 8th to rally the Aggies over WMU. Coley Kilpatrick picked up his first win of the season after limiting Bucknell to one run over 5.0 innings. 

UNCW (6-6, 0-0 CAA): The Seahawks dropped a narrow 8-6 decision at #3 Wake Forest before splitting four weekend contests vs. Columbia. Third baseman Jac Croom batted .478 with two doubles, two homers and six RBI’s last week. He has recorded multiple hits in five straight games to raise his average to .375. Freshman Tanner Thach had another big week, hitting .381 with three doubles, two homers and eight RBI’s. He has a six-game hitting streak and tops the CAA with 19 RBI’s. UNCW plated 40 runs in the final three games vs. Columbia. UNCW belted 10 homers against the Lions, including three by Dillon Lifreri. 

NORTHEASTERN (8-1, 0-0 CAA): The Huskies pushed their winning streak to seven following a three-game weekend sweep at USF. Northeastern is off to its best start since 1997. The Huskies scored 36 runs in the three games. Alex Lane smacked three 3-run homers and drove in 10 in the series while batting .429. Tyler MacGregor was 8-for-14 in the series with six RBI’s. He had multiple hits in all three games. Freshman Harrison Feinberg went 4-for-5 with two doubles, two homers and four RBI’s in Sunday’s 8-7 win. Freshman pitcher Aiven Cabral got his first career win on Sunday after allowing just two hits in 5.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen and fanning a career-high eight. 

STONY BROOK (0-9, 0-0 CAA): The Seawolves battled well in their weekend series at #13 North Carolina, but fell in all three games. Evan Fox was 6-for-14 (.429) against the Tar Heels with two doubles and a pair of homers. He recorded three extra base hits (2 doubles and a HR) in a game for just the second time in his career on Sunday. Jared Bellissimo held the Tar Heels to one run on two hits over 5.0 innings and fanned five on Friday, but didn’t get a decision in a 3-2, 11-inning setback. It was the fewest hits given up by a starting pitcher against UNC this season. Evan Giordano was 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBI’s on Saturday.

TOWSON (2-10, 0-0 CAA): The Tigers topped Villanova, 3-2, in their home opener, but dropped four games to Eastern Michigan over the weekend. Relievers Nate Nabholz and Bobby Spencer didn’t give up a hit over the final six innings against VU. Casey Bishop was 3-for-4 with a double, homer, three runs scored and four RBI’s in the opener vs. EMU. James Moses and Bryce Frederick also went deep on Friday. Elijah Dickerson went 3-for-5 and drove in two in Saturday’s second game and followed with four RBI’s on Sunday.  

WILLIAM & MARY (7-5, 0-0 CAA): The Tribe went 2-2 last week, starting the week by beating George Mason (4-3) and ending it with a victory over Canisius (5-3). W&M scored two in the 9th to top Mason, getting RBI singles from Jerry Barnes III and Nick Lottchea. Zach Tsakounis held both Mason and Canisius to one hit over 3.0 shutout innings. Cory Wall picked up a win and a save last week after giving up one run over 7.0 innings and striking out 10. Ben Williamson was 3-for-4 at ODU, while Max Winters tripled and drove in two runs. Joe Delossantos was 2-for-5 and stole two bases against Fairfield. 
  

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