WINGATE, N.C. – After winning the South Atlantic Conference Player of the Week earlier in the day, Greg Valentine was named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association National Pitcher Region Pitcher of the Week Tuesday evening.
He joins teammate Dillon Cate to win the honor this season after Cate picked up the honor in addition to the National Pitcher of the Week a week ago.
The right-hander worked in two games last week going 2-0 allowing just one earned run on six hits and a walk while striking out nine batters over 6 1/3 frames on the mound.
Valentine started the week by going 1 2/3 innings against 14th-ranked Northwood striking out a trio of batters in the outing to pick up the victory and seal the three-game set in favor of C-N. It was the first series win over a nationally-ranked team for the Eagles since sweeping No. 19 Tusculum on Feb. 15-17, 2013 while it's the first series win over a ranked non-conference unit since a sweep of 22nd-ranked Northern Kentucky on Feb. 14-15, 2009.
In a 5-3 win over Newberry in the first game of the series. Valentine faced the minimum in three of his four full frames of work. The Knoxville, Tenn. native earned his third win of the year while matching his career-high for K's set at Limestone on Feb. 2, 2018. He also threw 4 2/3 innings at Catawba on Feb. 25, 2017.
Overall on the year, the righty is 3-0 with a 1.40 ERA with 19 punch outs in 15 innings on the mound. His earned run average ranks second in the SAC while his seven appearances are second-most. His three victories put him in a three-way tie for first in the conference. Striking out 11.40 batters per nine frames, he is seventh.
From a national perspective, the hurler is seventh in the country with three victories on the year and is 13th in total appearances. Overall he has pitched in 57 games in his career as the junior is 31 shy of tying the program record for games by a pitcher.
Carson-Newman is on the road this weekend starting with a three-game series against Coker beginning Friday at 3 p.m.
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