Francesco Barbieri (OF, Ave Maria University)<\/b><\/p>\n
Before taking the field last week, Barbieri became Ave Maria\u2019s first Sun Conference Player of the Year since 2011. He ended the regular season leading the league in batting average (.373), on base percentage (.513), slugging percentage (.817), and home runs (16).<\/span><\/p>\n Barbieri then delivered an encore performance at the Sun Conference Tournament, going 4-for-10 and driving in a run in all three games played. He belted his 17th and 18th home runs of the season during the weekend while also stealing his 25th base of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n Alfredo Capacete II (RHP, University of California, Riverside)<\/b><\/p>\n Capacete took the bump three times out of the bullpen, conceding only one run across four innings. On Sunday, he worked a scoreless inning and a third with just one hit allowed, helping the Highlanders to a 3-0 defeat of CSU Bakersfield.<\/span><\/p>\n Dominic Castellano (LHP, University of Central Florida)<\/b><\/p>\n Castellano earned his second save of the season, clinching a series-opening win on Friday against Houston. In that game, Castellano allowed just one baserunner across two shutout innings, striking out three Cougars. He now carries a 2.66 earned run average with 50 strikeouts, a total that leads all UCF relievers.<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden Coon and Candon Dahle (RHP, Brigham Young University)<\/b><\/p>\n Coon and Dahle combined to allow a single run across four bullpen innings last week, and each delivered a scoreless inning in Monday\u2019s 8-6 victory over Abilene Christian. Coon\u2019s earned run average of 3.63 still ranks fourth among BYU pitchers.<\/span><\/p>\n Hunter Day (RHP, Missouri State University)<\/b><\/p>\n Day pitched well in a midweek tilt at Arkansas, the fifth-ranked Division I team in the nation, on Wednesday. Making his fifth start of the season, he allowed just one unearned run across 2 \u2154 innings.<\/span><\/p>\n Aydan Decker-Petty (RHP, Indiana University)<\/b><\/p>\n Decker-Petty tied his career high with six strikeouts on Sunday at Purdue, as he allowed two runs on one hit across 3 \u2154 innings of relief. Over his last three outings, Decker-Petty has worked 10 \u2153 frames to the tune of a 1.74 earned run average with nine strikeouts and just three hits allowed.<\/span><\/p>\n Carter Hanson (OF, University of Massachusetts)<\/b><\/p>\n Hanson stretched his on-base streak to eight games by recording a hit in all three games of a weekend series against St. Bonaventure. Earning a double on Friday, Hanson drove in a run in games one and three of the series. His 39 RBI for the season lead the team, and his seven doubles tie for tops among Minutemen hitters.<\/span><\/p>\n Brandon Jaenke (RHP, Viterbo University)<\/b><\/p>\n The strikeout machine known as Brandon Jaenke cranked up his output in Saturday\u2019s winning start against Mayville State. Jaenke punched out a career-high 15 hitters across 8 \u2153 innings, setting Viterbo\u2019s single-season strikeout record at 104 and allowing only one run on three hits. The right-hander ends the season having struck out eight or more in seven consecutive starts, going 3-0 in his final three starts with a 1.77 earned run average during that stretch.<\/span><\/p>\n Marcus Kruzan (RHP, University of St. Thomas)<\/b><\/p>\n Kruzan offered up scoreless relief work for the second straight weekend, pitching two strong innings with a pair of strikeouts on Saturday at North Dakota State. The freshman has not allowed a run in his last 5 \u2153 frames pitched.<\/span><\/p>\n Kade Lewis (INF, Butler University)<\/b><\/p>\n Lewis went 7-for-19 across four games, hitting a double and driving in six runs. The Sartell native set a new career high with four hits in Friday\u2019s series opener against Xavier, also bringing home four runs. In the final month of his first regular season, Lewis leads Butler in batting average (.374) and slugging percentage (.643) while ranking second with nine home runs and 45 RBI.<\/span><\/p>\n Tanner Recchio (INF, University of St. Thomas)<\/b><\/p>\n Recchio enjoyed a productive series at North Dakota State, going 3-for-7 with a double, a stolen base, a run scored, and two runs batted in. The freshman from Lakeville now has 13 RBI and 14 steals this season, with four of his thefts coming in the last five games.<\/span><\/p>\n Sawyer Smith (INF\/RHP, St. Cloud State University)<\/b><\/p>\n Smith extended his hitting streak to nine games with a big weekend against Bemidji State, going 6-for-12 with four doubles, his 11th home run of the season, and four runs batted in. He also threw a perfect inning of relief with two strikeouts in Saturday\u2019s 14-5 win. In 49 games this season \u2014 all of them starts \u2014 Smith leads the Huskies in batting average (.381), hits (75), doubles (19), and runs batted in (58). As a pitcher, he now owns a 3.86 earned run average with 22 strikeouts in 21 innings.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Check out how this summer’s Rox players are doing in their college spring seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":18164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n