FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
Luke Stewart
East Carolina’s Brad Mincey is the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week after he picked up two victories for the first place Pirates during last week’s action. The Hitter of the Week honor is being shared by Southern Miss SS Brian Dozier and UAB 1B Luke Stewart after both players registered big weekends at the plate in leading their teams to series sweeps.
Mincey picked up two of the Pirates four wins last week to improve to 5-1 on the season. He made his first start of the year against No. 26 UNC Wilmington on March 25, working 5 1/3 scoreless innings where he allowed six hits and fanned four as ECU posted its first shutout of the season in a 3-0 win. Mincey made his ninth relief appearance of the season in the resumption game against Marshall on Sunday morning, picking up his fifth win of the year. He worked three scoreless and hitless innings of relief with three strikeouts, facing one over the minimum to secure a C-USA series win over The Herd. On the week, he tossed 8 1/3 shutout innings allowing six hits, with seven punch outs.
Dozier had one of the best C-USA weekends in his brilliant four year career, as Southern Miss won three straight at UCF. The senior shortstop blasted a home run in all three games, including a grand slam in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. In the two games on Saturday, Dozier hit .667 (6-for-9) with seven runs scored, nine RBI, 12 total bases and drew two walks. On the week, he was 7-for-17 (.412) with eight runs scored, three home runs, including a grand slam, 10 RBI, 16 total bases two walks and a sacrifice fly, while slugging .941. Dozier, who entered the season as the NCAA career hits leader, has hit safely in 23 of the teams 25 games this year including a 18 game hit streak to start the season.
Stewart posted multiple hits in all four games and multiple RBI in three contests as he helped UAB post a 3-1 record last week. He hit three home runs, including two in Friday’s series opener with Savannah State and one in Saturday’s game. Stewart combined with teammate Digger Towe to post back-to-back homers on Friday and then did the same with fellow teammate Austin Taylor on Saturday. Stewart collected 10 RBI over the four games last week, including a season-high four on Saturday. The senior first baseman hit .727 (8-for-11) for the week and added five walks for an on-base percentage of .765. With 18 total bases in the four games, he registered a slugging percentage of 1.636. Stewart also scored multiple runs in three of the four games last week and struck out just once in 17 total plate appearances.
