DALLAS (NCBWA) – The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association released its National Player of the Week awards for the period ending March 5. Louisiana Tech senior third baseman Chase Lunceford was named National Hitter of the Week, while Radford senior right-handed pitcher Danny Hrbek and Kansas State senior left-handed pitcher Parker Rigler were named National Pitchers of the Week. The NCBWA Board reviews candidates from each Division I Conference each week and names winners each Tuesday throughout the season.
Lunceford helped Louisiana Tech improve to 11-1 on the season after batting .421 (8-for-19) with at least one RBI in all five games during a 4-1 week. The Clinton, Mississippi, native had three multi-RBI outings as well as three multiple-hit games, scoring seven runs. Lunceford doubled twice in the win over No. 20 Arkansas and hit three total home runs on the week, including becoming the first Louisiana Tech player to hit multiple home runs in a game in over two years during Sunday’s series-ending sweep of previously undefeated Wichita State. Lunceford also drew a pair of walks.
Hrbek tossed the first nine-inning no-hitter in Radford baseball history and fourth in program history, which includes two seven-inning no hitters and one rain-shortened five-inning game. He totaled a career-high eight strikeouts, yielding no walks, facing just one batter over the minimum. In the nine innings, Hrbek had three innings of two-plus strikeouts, throwing only 88 pitches in the contest that included 63 strikes. The only blemish on the day for the Highlanders was a throwing error in the bottom of the first inning. The Effort, Pa. native threw just 17 pitches to retire the final nine Bobcats to cap off the Highlanders’ first no-hitter since Jason Anderson tossed a seven-inning affair against UNC Asheville on April 15, 1995.
Rigler threw Kansas State’s first no-hitter since 1991. The Edmond, Oklahoma, native threw the ninth no-hitter in K-State program history Sunday in a 14-0 decision over Eastern Illinois. He struck out six EIU hitters, walked two and threw 103 pitches en route to his second win of the season. Rigler, a transfer from Cowley College, threw K-State’s first no-hitter since Chris Hmielewski’s five-inning no-hitter of Augustana in 1991.
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