NC State’s Poulk, Georgia Tech’s Bradley receive ACC Baseball weekly honors
GREENSBORO, N.C. – NC State second baseman Dallas Poulk has been named the first Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Player of the Week of the 2010 season, while Georgia Tech sophomore Jed Bradley has been named the conference’s Pitcher of the Week.
Poulk, a senior from Fayetteville, N.C., drove in 10 runs in the Wolfpack’s three-game, season-opening sweep of La Salle after driving in a total of 23 all of last season. NC State set a school record for runs in a game and margin of victory with a 32-3 win in Friday’s opener. The Wolfpack’s 65 total runs (following an 18-3 win on Saturday and a 15-9 victory on Sunday) set another school record for a three-game series.
Poulk finished the weekend with a slugging percentage of 1.182 and an on-base percentage of .667.
Bradley had a career-high 12 strikeouts on 72 pitches in six innings in a 13-0 win over Missouri State on Sunday. The Huntsville, Ala., native gave up just four hits and no runs, holding the opponents to just a .190 batting average.
Bradley retired eight of the first nine batters he faced, six of the eight coming on strikeouts. Bradley’s 12 strikeouts for the game were the most since teammate Deck McGuire fanned 13 in the 2009 season-opener against Lipscomb.
ACC teams posted a 26-12 record over Opening Weekend with six teams – Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina and NC State – getting off to 3-0 starts. Six teams remain ranked among the Top 20 of both the Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls, with defending ACC champion Virginia earning its first-ever No. 1 national ranking from Baseball America.
New Mexico’s Willett & Lachapelle Take Mountain West Honors
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – New Mexico senior Max Willett and junior Mike Lachapelle have been named the Mountain West Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively. This is the second career weekly honor for Willett and first for Lachapelle.
Willett, from Highlands Ranch, Colo., batted .636 (7-for-11) from the plate with two doubles, a triple, three runs scored and one RBI as the Lobos earned the program’s first-ever victories against a No. 1 ranked opponent, going 2-1 at top-ranked Texas last weekend. In the 6-2 season-opening loss to the Longhorns on Friday, Willett went 2-for-4 with a double. In New Mexico’s 6-5 come-from-behind game two win on Saturday, he went 3-for-4, scoring one run and driving in another that gave the Lobos their final margin of victory. His RBI-sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth put the Lobos up for good at 6-5 after trailing in the game, 5-2. In the Lobos’ 3-1 series finale win on Sunday, he went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. For the series, Willett posted a .615 on-base percentage and a 1.000 slugging percentage, while tallying six putouts from his outfield position with no errors defensively.
Lachapelle, a transfer from Pima Community College, allowed just one run over six innings to earn the first win of his Division I career in New Mexico’s 3-1 victory over No. 1 Texas on Sunday. The lefthander from Tucson, Ariz., scattered seven hits, surrendering only one extra-base rap, while striking out one batter and issuing one walk.