Baseball Southern Conference

Weekly Baseball Honors Announced

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Samford first baseman Austin Edens and Mercer left-hander Grant Papelian have been named the Southern Conference player and pitcher of the week, respectively, for all games March 23-29. The selections are made by the league office.

Edens hit an even .500 with 10 RBIs, six runs, two home runs, two doubles and two walks as the Bulldogs went 3-2 last week with a SoCon series wins at VMI. He slugged .864 and had an on-base percentage of .542 on the week.

In Tuesday’s 12-6 win at Alabama State, the freshman from Baton Rouge, La., went 4-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and two driven in. Edens followed that up with a 3-for-4 performance the following day in a loss to Jacksonville State, scoring a run and collecting an RBI.

Edens opened Samford’s series at VMI with perhaps his best game of the week, going 3-for-5 with a homer, a double, four RBIs and two runs scored as the Bulldogs raced to the 15-2 win. After being held hitless in game two of the series, Edens was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer Sunday as Samford claimed the rubber game, 10-5.

Samford (11-14, 4-2 SoCon) kicks off a 10-game homestand when it hosts Auburn on Tuesday and Alabama A&M on Wednesday before hosting UNCG (12-13, 4-2 SoCon) on Friday and Saturday.

Also nominated: Drew Ellis (The Citadel), Jackson Ware (Mercer), Hunter King (UNCG), Jacob Jaye (VMI), Austin Atwell (Western Carolina) and James Plaisted (Wofford).

Mercer’s Papelian threw seven innings of three-hit, shutout ball in picking up the win Saturday at Furman. He struck out four and allowed just one walk as the Bears rolled to an 11-1 win, extending their record school-record streak to five wins to open league play. After surrendering a leadoff double in the bottom of the first, Papelian retired nine straight Furman batters before allowing a single in the fourth. The senior from Marietta, Ga., then set down the next seven batters before allowing another single in the sixth. A walk in the seventh accounted for the final base-runner he would allow.

For the season, Papelian is 3-1 with a 3.82 ERA.

Papelian became the third different Mercer pitcher to earn the weekly honor this season and second in a row. Seven weeks into the season, Mercer pitchers have claimed four of the awards, with Ryan Askew claiming in Feb. 23 and Eric Nyquist winning twice, on March 9 and 23.

Mercer (18-12, 5-1 SoCon) hosts Savannah State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before heading to Charleston, S.C., for a three-game set at The Citadel (14-12, 0-3 SoCon) from Thursday to Saturday.

Also nominated: Grant Schuermann (Furman), Alex Ledford (Samford), Brandon Barbery (VMI), B.J. Nobles (Western Carolina) and Matthew Milburn (Wofford).

2015 SoCon Players of the Week
Feb. 16    Trey York, ETSU
Feb. 23    Damon Waller, Samford
March 2    Trey York, ETSU
March 9    Zac MacAneney, UNCG
March 16    Kevin Phillips, ETSU
March 23    Kyle Lewis, Mercer
March 30    Austin Edens, Samford

2015 SoCon Pitchers of the Week
Feb. 16    B.J. Nobles, Western Carolina
Feb. 23    Ryan Askew, Mercer
March 2    Adam Scott, Wofford
March 9    Eric Nyquist, Mercer
March 16    Luke Leftwich, Wofford
March 23    Eric Nyquist, Mercer
March 30    Grant Papelian, Mercer

-www.SoConSports.com-