FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
Danny Black (Oklahoma) has earned the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Player of the Week award, while Kansas’ T.J. Walz has received the Pitcher of the Week accolade for games of April 26-May 2, in voting by a panel of media covering the conference. Walz is honored for the second time in his career (April 6, 2009).
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Danny Black, Oklahoma, INF, Jr., 6-2, 164, Roseville, Calif./Feather River JC
The junior second baseman hit safely in all four of OU’s games (three multiple-hit contests) and produced seven RBI as the Sooners posted a 3-1 record last week. Black hit .533 (8-for-15) while slugging at a 1.133 clip with 17 total bases (two home runs, a double and a triple) and two multiple-RBI outings. He also walked once for a .563 on-base percentage and did not commit an error while starting each game at second base. In Tuesday’s game against Dallas Baptist, Black was 3-for-3 with four RBI, including his third home run of the season. Black tallied three RBI with a homer and a triple while compiling a .417 batting average in OU’s 2-1 series victory over No. 20 Kansas State. The Roseville, Calif.-junior drove in a run off two hits in the series opener, and then again on a RBI triple in game two versus No. 20 Kansas State. He ended the weekend with another two-hit performance and his seventh RBI of the week. Black has 13 hits, four homers and 18 RBI in the last eight games after entering that stretch with 26 hits, zero home runs and 13 RBI. He is hitting .328 on the season.
PITCHER OF THE WEEK
T.J. Walz, Kansas, RHP, Jr., 6-0, 172, Omaha, Neb./Skutt HS
Walz struck out a season-high 11 Cowboys and took a no-hitter into the ninth inning to earn his team-leading seventh victory of the season at Oklahoma State on Friday. He held the team with the second-best batting average in the Big 12 hitless over the first eight innings of action, retiring 13 in a row after a two-out walk in the second. The Omaha, Neb.-hurler retired 11 via strikeouts, and 11 more on flyouts in the game. Walz was charged with two runs after allowing a leadoff single to Davis Duren in the ninth and another hit to Tom Belza before the Kansas bullpen allowed its inherited runners to score. Over Walz’s past two starts, he has held his opposition to four runs on eight hits over 15 1/3 innings (1.76 ERA) with four walks and 18 strikeouts.
