April 18, 2005
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Baseball Player of the Week
Zac Rivera
UW-Milwaukee, Junior, 1B (Bartlett, Ill.)
UW-Milwaukee junior Zac Rivera is the Horizon League Baseball Player of the Week for the period ending April 18.
Rivera batted .421 (8-for-19) for the week, helping the Panthers to a 3-2 record. The Illinois native collected hits and scored in all five games this week, finishing with a team-high eight hits and six runs. On Wednesday, he hit a double, walked twice and scored a pair of runs in UWM's 12-4 win over Valparaiso. At UIC over the weekend, he went 2-for-3 with a home run on Saturday and came back with a 3-for-6 game, with his second home run of the series, on Sunday.
Baseball Pitcher of the Week
Zach Peterson
UIC, Sophomore, Pitcher (Minnetonka, Minn.)
UIC sophomore Zack Peterson is the Horizon League Baseball Pitcher of the Week for the period ending April 18.
Sophomore pitcher Zach Peterson earned his first career, complete-game victory as the Minnetonka, Minn., native held UW-Milwaukee to four hits, while striking out five batters in a 12-2 Horizon League victory over the Panthers in Game One of their doubleheader on Saturday afternoon. For the season, Peterson is 4-1 with an ERA of 3.61 and 22 strikeouts in 42.1 innings pitched.
Other Top Horizon League Player Performers - April 18
Mark Hallberg, UIC, Freshman, 1B (Barron, Wis.)
Freshman first baseman Mark Hallberg helped UIC to three victories, over the past week, batting .421 (8-for-19) with one homer and nine RBI, including nine runs scored. His most impressive performance came in a 12-8 non-conference victory over Western Michigan on Tuesday, going 3-for-5 with four RBI and three runs scored. For the season, Hallberg is batting .330 with a homer and 22 RBI on the campaign.
Dale Mueller, Butler, Senior, Outfield (LaCrosse, Wis.)
Mueller batted .556 in five games for the Bulldogs last week. He had 10 hits, including one double, one run batted in and three runs scored during the week. The senior outfielder had three hits and scored two runs in Butler's 9-7 non-league win against Toledo. He had five hits in two games against Toledo and three hits against IPFW in Butler's three games in Toledo last weekend
Justin Banks, Youngstown State, Junior, 3B (Steubenville, Ohio)
Banks hit .444 (8-for-18) and slugged .833 with seven runs scored, four RBIs and a home run in five games this week. He had multiple hits in three of the games and scored in every game. Against Akron, he went 2-for-4 with two doubles, two runs scored and an RBI. In game two of Saturday's doubleheader with Ashland, he had his first three-hit game of the year after drawing three walks in game one. On Sunday, he tripled and scored in the opener and went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run and two runs scored in the nightcap.
Brian Vickers, Wright State, Senior, Catcher (Perrysberg, Ohio)
Vickers went on a tare this week as he batted .600 for the week with six hits, six walks and was hit by a pitch. Vickers had five doubles, and on his only single he stole second base against CSU. Vickers started all five games but was forced from the lineup in the first game of a doubleheader against the Vikings with a twisted knee. Vickers got started early in the week as he went three-for-three with four RBI against CSU in game one and walked five times in the doubleheader and ripped a double for his only hit in the finale. Vickers is currently in the mist of a six-game hitting streak and is hitting .353 with 25 RBI.
Other Top Horizon League Pitcher Performers - April 18
Chris Coleman, Wright State, Junior, RHP (Dayton, Ohio)
Coleman worked seven shutout innings against the Vikings to improve to 3-0 on the season. Coleman struck out one batter in the game and walked none, going to a three-ball count only four times in the game. Coleman threw only 85 pitches and retired the side in order three times. Only two batters passed first base in the game and Coleman forced ten fly-outs, nine ground outs, one strikeout and picked a runner off of first to account for the 21 outs. He faced only 25 batters in the game as he recorded the Raiders third shutout of the season.
Aaron Sorenson, UW-Milwaukee, Junior, Pitcher (Sheboygan, Wis.)
Sorenson pitched a complete-game victory at UIC on Friday. He scattered seven hits and six runs over nine innings, while striking out three. The Sheboygan righthander has now won his last five starts, averaging eight innings per.
Kevin Libeg, Youngstown State, Junior, RHP (Hubbard, Ohio)
Libeg earned a win and recorded two saves in three relief appearances against Akron and Ashland this week. On Wednesday against the Zips, the junior came on to earn the win while striking out four in two innings of work. He then threw two shutout innings against Ashland in game one of the doubleheader and one shutout frame in game two to earn his second save of the day. Since moving to the bullpen on March 17, Libeg has gone 3-0 with three saves in 10 outings and has posted a 2.31 ERA.
Horizon League News & Notes
Butler Bulldogs (11-21, 1-3 HL)
Senior Dale Mueller hit safely in all four games in which he came to bat last week, running his current hitting streak to 13 straight games. Mueller is Butler's all-time hits leader with 259 career hits.
Junior left-handed pitcher Brian Smith pitched two shutout innings in relief to pick up his for collegiate victory in Butler's 7-6 non-league win over Marian.
Cleveland State (5-20, 1-7 HL)
Cleveland State makes a brief stop at home on Tuesday (April 19) for a 6:00 p.m. with Akron at Classic Park in Eastlake before heading to Fort Wayne, Ind. for a single game with IPFW on Wednesday (April 20) beginning at 4:00 p.m.
UIC Flames (17-14-1, 3-5 HL)
UIC's 11-game, home-winning streak came to an end on Friday evening, as UW-Milwaukee picked up the 8-6 win over the Flames.
Junior designated hitter Ted Rosinski totaled 11 RBI in five games during the week, including a career-high, five RBI in a 14-11 win over UW-Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon. Junior reliever Jason Foster has accounted for 31.3% of UIC's decisions this season, as the Wyoming, Minn., native is 5-5 on the campaign.
UW-Milwaukee Panthers (14-15, 5-3 HL)
Junior Joe Nowicki extended his team-high hitting streak to 12 games over the weekend. He has now collected hits in every game he has played in April, batting .489 (22-for-45) with six doubles, four home runs and 16 RBIs.
The Panthers have rebounded from a 3-11 start to go 11-4 over their last 15 games. In that time, the team is batting.339 with 24 home runs and 124 runs scored.
Junior Aaron Sorenson has won his last five starts, doing much of the work himself. Over those starts, he has averaged eight innings per, and working 40-of-43 possible innings. Sorenson has also struck out 36, walked just nine and posted
an ERA of 4.95 in that time.
Wright State Raiders (18-15, 7-1 HL)
Going into this past weekend the Raiders were hitting .315 as a team, which ranked 27th in the nation, and raised their average to .319 after batting .340 for the week. The Raiders have nine players batting over .300 and currently have seven players with multi-game hit streaks. Justin Wilson has made his presence felt at the top of the order for WSU as he put together a 10 game hit streak and has reached base in his last eleven games. The Green and Gold have started out their home schedule strong posting an 11-1 record overall in the confines of Nischwitz Stadium.
Youngstown State Penguins (18-15, 3-1 HL)
Jim Phillips saw his 14-game hitting streak come to an end in game two of Sunday's doubleheader against Ashland. Over the span that began on March 27 against Central Michigan, Phillips hit .491 (27-for-55) with 15 RBIs and recorded more than one hit in nine of the games.
The Penguins played their first series at Eastwood Field on Sunday with a doubleheader against Ashland. YSU's previous six home games were played at Cene Park in Struthers, Ohio.
Seven different Penguins are hitting at above .300 for the season. Jim Phillips leads the squad with a .404 average while Tommy Nutt, Justin Banks, Brandon Caipen, J.D. Hannan, Josh Page and Dustin Thomas are also above the mark.
After starting only eight of the team's first 25 games, junior J.D. Hannan has started the last eight contests in centerfield and batting leadoff. In those eight starts, he is hitting .394 with 12 runs scored. Youngstown State's bullpen has already tied the mark for the second-most saves in school history with eight. The school record of 14 was set in 1995 while the staff in 2002 also recorded eight. Freshman Ryan Sellman has recorded five of the saves while junior Kevin Libeg has the other three.
