GREENWOOD, Ind. – For the second straight week, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference received a share of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association’s (NCBWA) weekly award for the Midwest Region.
After Alderson Broaddus’ Randy Dobnak was selected for pitching accolades last week, Trevecca Nazarene’s Hunter Newman and Kentucky Wesleyan’s Matt Pobereyko earned respective nods this week.
Pobereyko halted an 11-game win streak assembled by Alderson Broaddus, also unbeaten in the conference standings at the time, with a historic outing on the mound on Sunday to open a four-game series.
The towering righty went the distance for a nine-inning no-hitter while recording 18 strikeouts.
He walked four and allowed one batter to reach on a hit-by-pitch sequence as the Panthers' offense backed him up with 19 runs of support in the shutout.
While it is not the first no-hitter in KWC's storied history since the program's inception in 1961, the 18 strikeouts represent a conference single-game record in less than three years.
Four different players have already struck out 12 batters in a game this year while the springs of 2013 and 2014 saw Zach Bradfield of Davis & Elkins and Ryan Ledbetter (current Texas Rangers minor leaguer) of Cedarville both sit down 14 hitters on strikes.
Newman terrorized the Davis & Elkins pitching staff in a Trevecca four-game conference sweep over the weekend. He drove in a total of 18 runs in just four games, including eight with a two-home run showcase on Friday.
Newman followed that effort up with a perfect 5-for-5 exhibition at the plate with another five RBI while doubling and tripling and stealing a pair of bases. He also scored a combined six times in Friday's twinbill.
After pounding out a pair of hits to start Saturday's doubleheader against the Senators, Newman crushed another home run and was 3-for-5 with four more runs driven in.
On the week, the junior corner infielder hit 13-for-23, with 18 RBI, 11 runs scored, three home runs, a double, a triple, two stolen bases and a pair of walks. He slugged 1.130 and sported an on-base percentage of .607.
Newman has his sights set on the G-MAC triple crown, leading the league in average (.508), RBI (55) and home runs (13). He also paces the conference in hits (61), walks (24), runs scored (46) and doubles (16).
In the NCAA's most updated statistics report (excluding the D&E series), Newman ranked in the top 20 nationally in several categories including slugging percentage (fifth), batting average (13th) and home runs per game (14th) and home runs (18th).