March 14, 2011
IRVING, Texas - For the second time in program history, Baylor baseball student-athletes earned both Big 12 Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week, the league office announced Monday.
Chris Slater earned his first-ever Player of the Week award, while Logan Verrett was honored as Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Week for the second time in his career. Verrett was named Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper earlier in the day.
Verrett and Slater join Mark McCormick and Josh Ford as the only Baylor players to win both Big 12 Conference weekly honors in the same week.
Slater, a senior from Plano, Texas, hit .600 (12-for-20) with two doubles, one triple, one walk, seven RBI and seven runs scored to lead the Bears to a 5-0 record during the week. He entered the week with three hits in 19 at-bats on the season, but with four consecutive three-hit games, his batting average jumped from .158 to a team-leading .385.
Slater started the week going 3-for-3 with a run scored and a sacrifice bunt in Baylor's win at Texas State on Tuesday. He went 3-for-4 with a double, walk, two runs and three RBI in the Bears' first game against Louisiana Tech on Thursday. Slater followed that up by going 3-for-4 with a triple and a run scored on Friday and 3-for-5 with a double, two runs and three RBI on Saturday.
A junior from Corpus Christi, Texas, Verrett allowed only one hit in a complete-game shutout against Louisiana Tech on Friday night at Baylor Ballpark. He gave up an infield single leading off the game, then held the next 27 batters hitless and faced just one batter over the minimum while recording a Baylor Ballpark-record-tying 14 strikeouts.
Verrett only allowed four balls out of the infield, all of which were flyouts. He faced only two three-ball counts and only threw two balls to six of 28 batters faced.
Slater's award comes a week after teammate Landis Ware was honored as Big 12 Conference Player of the Week. It marks the third time in program history the Bears have won Player of the Week two times in a row. Chris Durbin and Ross Bennett were honored on consecutive weeks in 2003, and Paul Witt and Josh Ford were chosen in back-to-back weeks in 2004.
Baylor's 17th-year head coach Steve Smith goes for his 600th career victory when the Bears resume their 14-game homestand at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday against Florida International. Freshman Trae Davis is set to make his first start for the Bears against FIU's Kyle Fitzpatrick, who threw a no-hitter against Northeastern on March 2. All tickets for the game are $3.
