Sophomores Sean Sutton (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) and Tarik Skubal (Kingman, Ariz.) have been named the Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, announced Monday morning by the league office.
In Seattle U’s four-game sweep over Bowling Green, Sutton batted .667 (8-for-12) with two doubles, two runs scored, three RBI, and four walks. In the series opener, he was a perfect 3-for-3 from the plate and followed that up by going 4-for-6 in Saturday’s doubleheader. For the season, he is currently second in the WAC in batting average (.478), third in total bases (17) and fourth in hits (11).
"Sean had a big weekend for us with the ability to have success at the plate, and his stats do not even show how good his outs were as well. He was our staple in the middle of the order and really kept our momentum going in a lot of innings," Seattle U head coach Donny Harrel said.
Skubal continued to dominate from the mound Saturday, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out 10 Bowling Green batters in six innings of work. After the first two weekends of the college baseball season, Skubal leads the country in strikeout-to-walk ratio (23.00), is tied for the lead in earned run average (0.00), and is second in Division I in total strikeouts (23).
"As scary as it sounds, Tarik was not as good as last weekend - but his stuff is so dominant that he continued to have an amazing start for us,” added Harrel. “23 strikeouts to 1 walk in your first two outings is really, really amazing. I am glad he is pitching for us instead of against us!!!"
In other news, with the forecast calling for rain tomorrow, the coaches of Seattle University and the University of Portland have agreed to postpone their game scheduled for Tuesday, March 1, to a later date.
Seattle University (5-3) brings a five-game winning streak into a four-game weekend series against Oakland University, starting Friday, March 5, at 5 p.m. at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue.