Baseball Southern Conference

ETSU?s Owenby, Nesselt earn weekly SoCon baseball honors

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – ETSU’s battery of catcher Hagen Owenby and right-hander Jimmy Nesselt have been named the Southern Conference player and pitcher of the week, respectively, for all games May 11-17. The selections are made by the league office and are the final ones of the 2015 season.

The duo helped the Bucs win their final SoCon series of the season, as ETSU took two of three from Wofford, which entered the weekend with the possibility of winning a share of the regular-season title.

Owenby hit .467 and slugged an even 1.000 in four games last week, hitting two home runs and two doubles. The freshman from Knoxville, Tenn., scored six runs and drove in eight. He also drew two walks.

Against Appalachian State on Tuesday, Owenby went 1-for-4 with a run scored. In Friday’s opener against Wofford, the rookie hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first to help the Bucs to the 6-3 win. In the first day of Saturday’s doubleheader, Owenby slammed his second homer in as many games, a solo shot, and added an RBI single, two walks and another run scored in the 10-9 loss.

Owenby was 3-for-4 in the rubber game, hitting a pair of doubles and driving in three runs for the second time in three games. He also scored twice as the Bucs won the game 12-5 to claim the series.

Also nominated: Austin Mapes (The Citadel), Charlie Madden (Mercer), T.J. Dixon (Samford), Collin Fleischer (VMI), Bradley Strong (Western Carolina) and Matt Ramsay (Wofford).

Nesselt won his fifth game of the season Friday, allowing just one unearned run on four hits and two walks before being removed after five innings due to a predetermined pitch count.

The senior from Plantation, Fla., struck out nine batters on the day to push his season total to a career-high 103, good for a tie for second in the SoCon this season. Nesselt became the first Bucs pitcher to hit the century mark in strikeouts since 2001.

Ninth-seeded ETSU (21-34, 8-16 SoCon) will take on No. 8 seed The Citadel (25-28, 10-14 SoCon) in Tuesday’s single-elimination play-in game of the Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park in Charleston, S.C. The contest begins at 10 a.m., with the winner advancing to face No. 1 seed Mercer (31-21, 16-7 SoCon) on Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the double-elimination portion of the bracket.

Also nominated: Thomas Byelick (The Citadel), Dimitri Kourtis (Mercer), Dillon Bray (Western Carolina) and Will Stillman (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
April 6    Conor Clancey, Wofford
April 13    Matt Smith, Western Carolina
April 20    Austin Edens, Samford
April 27    James Plaisted, Wofford
May 4    Kyle Lewis, Mercer
May 11    Conor Clancey, Wofford
May 18    Hagen Owenby, ETSU

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
April 6    James Reeves, The Citadel
April 13    Grant Schuermann, Furman
April 20    Ryan Clark, UNCG
April 27    Matthew Quarles, Furman
May 4    Chad Sykes, UNCG
May 11    James Reeves, The Citadel
May 18    Jimmy Nesselt, ETSU

-www.SoConSports.com-