Numerous Texas Collegiate League players have been selected to their respective conference weekly awards the past weeks including Jess Buenger of Rice (Graham Roughnecks 2005 & 2006/Brazos Valley Bombers 2007), Clint Arnold of TCU (Weatherford Wranglers – 2005 & 2006), Chase Bayuk of
Kansas
State (McKinney Marshals) and Kai Kirby of
Seward
County
CC (Denton Outlaws). These athletes represent yet another great example of the amount of quality collegiate talent coming through the TCL.
Bayuk had his longest outing of his career in the game, going 8.1 strong innings and scattering seven hits and one run with three strikeouts. Three of the seven hits he surrendered were in the fifth inning and from that point on, the junior retired 12 in a row before leaving the game in the ninth inning with one out.
Buenger had one of the best weeks of any Owl all year, leading the team with a composite .556 batting average as the team went 3-1. Buenger went 10-for-18 with a home run, four doubles, seven runs scored and four RBI and was selected to the All-Silver Glove Series Team for the annual showdown with cross-town rival Houston.
Arnold was 11-for-19 (.579) at the plate with two home runs, three doubles, nine RBI and six runs scored. Defensively, he had five putouts and one assist in his first action in centerfield this season.
Kirby went 8-for-16 (.500) from the plate with two doubles, four RBIs, three runs scored and two stolen bases during the week ending April 8th. Kirby has nine multi-hit games this season and is batting .318 with 29 runs scored, six doubles, two triples, 12 RBI and is a perfect 7-for-7 in stolen base attempts.
Here is a look around the nation at other stand-out performances by Texas Collegiate League players this week. Stats are through games as of April 17, 2007.
Arkansas
TCL season strikeout king Jess Todd (Coppell Copperheads-2006) went five innings for the Razorbacks but didn’t get the decision after allowing two runs on four hits against
Florida on Sunday. He did strikeout a career-high 10 while also walking a career-high four.
Logan Forsythe (Colleyville LoneStars-2006 & 2007) posted a career day on Sunday with a career-high four hits and a career-high six RBI. He has hit in all 15 SEC games this season and 31 of his last 34 games overall. Forsythe has raised his overall batting average to .368, while upping his SEC average to .406.
Baylor
Closer Nick Cassavechia (
McKinney Marshals-2005) has recorded multiple strikeouts in nine consecutive outings, averaging 14.6 strikeouts per nine innings in that time (26 strikeouts, 16.0 innings). Sunday against
Kansas ,he retired all nine batters he faced with two strikeouts for his seventh save of the season.
Belmont-Abbey
Will Breslin (
Wichita Falls Roughnecks) is raking in some impressive numbers for Belmont-Abbey. The
Daytona Beach native is hitting .389 with 12 home runs, 51 RBI and leads the Crusaders with 24 doubles.
Rice
Junior Brian Friday (
Duncanville Deputies-2006) has extended his hitting streak to 12 games and is batting .357 with a league-leading six doubles and 13 runs scored in conference play.
Ryne Tacker (Coppell Copperheads-2006) came up big in his first collegiate start in nearly two full years on Saturday, holding
Houston to three singles while firing a shutout in a season-long 6.0 innings of work. Tacker tied a career-high with nine strikeouts and allowed just one walk on the way to earning his team-leading seventh win of the season. It was the his first start since 2005, as he had been sidelined with an injury in 2006 and worked exclusively out of the bullpen so far in 2007. For his efforts Tacker was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2007 Silver Glove Series versus
Houston .
Tyler Henley (Euless LoneStars-2005) was hit twice in the
Houston series to bring his career total for getting hit by a pitch to a school record 60 times.
Stephen F. Austin
Jared Schrom (
McKinney Marshals) tallied his third win of the season after going seven innings allowing two runs off seven hits defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Schrom leads the pitching staff with an 3.46 ERA and 56 strikeouts.
Temple
Ryan Weber (
Brazos
Valley Bombers) batted a team-high five hits (5-for-9) in a double header against
Richmond last week. The transfer from Eastfield JC in
Mesquite, Texas is hitting .343 with two home runs and 21 RBI on the season.
TCU
Tyler Lockwood (
Denton Outlaws) earned his third win relief, tossing three scoreless innings in relief in an 11-4 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners. He gave up just two hits, walked one and struck out one. Steven Maxwell (
Denton Outlaws) also was strong against the Sooners following Lockwood with a scoreless inning that included two strikeouts.
UNLV
Freshman catcher Drew Beuerlein (Weatherford Wranglers) went 3-for-4 over the weekend series against the Horned Frogs of TCU. The cousin of former NFL quarterback Steve Beuerlein pounded in two RBI and a double for the Rebels.
UTA
Ben Burum (Mineral Wells-2005 & 2006) delivered the game-winning home run against
McNeese
State on Sunday. For Burum, it was his team-leading sixth home run of the season and the fourth straight Southland Conference series in which he has homered.
#TCL#
