FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana-Lafayette’s Greg Fontenot and Zach Osborne are the Sun Belt Conference Baseball Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, as voted on by the league’s member institutions.
Fontenot, a local Lafayette product, put an impressive week as the Cajuns rolled to four-straight wins, including a series sweep of conference foe Middle Tennessee. The sophomore was instrumental in ULL’s victories, helping on both sides of the ball with his errorless performance at shortstop and his .583 batting average. Overall he maintained a .667 on-base percentage, scoring five times throughout the four-game stretch, while adding six RBI. On both Saturday and Sunday, he was responsible for what became the game-winning RBIs in come-from-behind victories over league-leading Middle Tennessee. Fontenot also laid down three sacrifice bunts during the week and was 2-for-2 in stolen bases. Fontenot was a tough out, as he struck out only once. He successfully advanced runners at an .800 clip, while batting 5-for-7 with runners on base and a clutch 2-for-2 with the bases loaded. He was 4-for-5 with runners in scoring position and 4-for-4 with runners on second and third. Fontenot finished the week with an impressive 1.250 OPS.
Osborne was untouchable this week, earning a win and a save in seven innings of dominant work across two appearances, including one perfect outing, both against the hot bats of Middle Tennessee. The Blue Raiders came into Friday’s game ranked in the top 20 nationally in six different offensive categories, and Osborne shut them down Friday night and dominated again on Sunday. He threw 3 1/3 innings of perfect relief work Friday, setting 10 batters down in order to make the Cajuns’ come-from-behind rally standup. To close the game, Osborne struck out all three batters in the Raider’s last try, all swinging. On Sunday, Osborne struck out the first two batters he faced, both swinging, and went on to strike out two more, fanning four in 12 batters faced. He earned the save while allowing just one hit. For the week, batters hit .048 off Osborne (1-for-21, single), and he allowed no sacrifices and threw no wild pitches. He finished the week averaging 11.57 strikeouts per game and 28.29 batters per game, just 1.29 over the minimum.
