Kalber, Straka, Pingel Earn First Baseball Weekly Honors
Kalber, Straka, Pingel Earn First Baseball Weekly Honors
ELMHURST, Ill. – Fort Wayne's Markus Kalber was named The Summit League's Baseball Player of the Week while North Dakota State's John Straka and Western Illinois' Mason Pingel were selected as the league's Pitchers of the Week for their performances Feb. 15-17.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Markus Kalber, Fort Wayne
Jr., 2B
Chandler, Ariz. // Cochise College
Kalber collects his first career Player of the Week award after going 8-for-16 (.500) and collecting a hit in all four games last week. In the first game of a doubleheader at Alabama A&M Sunday, the junior second baseman had four doubles and scored two runs in the 7-6, 10-inning loss. In game two, he recorded another double with a RBI. He also added one hit apiece in a win over Indiana State and loss to Morehead State. Kalber had a .500 on-base percentage and an .812 slugging percentage on the week with five doubles, two runs scored and a RBI.
Also nominated: Blake Turbak, North Dakota State; Jameson Henning, Western Illinois.
PITCHERS OF THE WEEK
John Straka, North Dakota State
Sr., RHP
Chaska, Minn. // Chaska
Straka earns his fifth career Pitcher of the Week honor after collecting his school record sixth career shutout in a 4-0 win at Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Friday. The right-hander needed just 96 pitches over the nine innings and surrendered only two singles in the game. He recorded six strikeouts and did not walk a single batter. He improved his career record to 15-9 and dropped his career ERA from 3.03 to 2.91 with the win.
Mason Pingel, Western Illinois
So., RHP
Appleton, Wis. // Appleton North
Pingel records his first career Pitcher of the Week award after earning the victory over No. 1 Arkansas in the series finale Sunday. The sophomore went five innings and had five strikeouts. He allowed seven hits and three earned runs to the top-ranked Razorbacks. The win was the first over the nation's No.1-ranked team in Western Illinois history and was also head coach Ryan Brownlee's first career win.
Also nominated: Kyle Sorensen, Fort Wayne.
ABOUT THE SUMMIT LEAGUE
Entering its fourth decade of Division I athletics, The Summit League offers 19 championship sports and has a combined enrollment of over 144,000 at nine universities, four of which are located in top 58 U.S. metro populations (Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Omaha). Member institutions include: Fort Wayne (Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne), IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis), Kansas City (University of Missouri-Kansas City), Omaha (University of Nebraska Omaha), North Dakota State University, Oakland University, the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University and Western Illinois University. Previously known as the Mid-Continent Conference, The Summit League rebranded in 2007 and has since produced 54 All-Americans, 37 Academic All-America selections and seven NCAA Championships. For more information about the league and its history, visit www.thesummitleague.org to "See The Summit" or follow on Twitter @thesummitleague.
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