INDIANAPOLIS – Findlay and Ohio Dominican both received Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball Players of the Week honors for the North Division as announced on Tuesday.
 
More teams around the league were able to make their season debuts as many programs gear up for Spring Break trips to warmer climates.
 
Ohio Dominican anchors the top of the North Division standings at 5-2 overall with region wins so far against Grand Valley State and Tiffin. Findlay is 1-1 overall while Hillsdale, Walsh, Lake Erie and Malone all have been able to get their first games in.
 
North Division Player of the Week
Ryan O’Malley
Findlay
Catcher
Freshman
North Royalton, OH (North Royalton HS)
 
O’Malley made an immediate splash as the starting backstop both with the bat and with the glove as the Oilers split a doubleheader against Wheeling Jesuit. He was 6-for-9 at the plate combined with three runs scored and a pair of RBI.
 
Batting seventh in the order, O’Malley was a perfect 4-for-4 in game one with three of Findlay’s 12 runs scored. His first career RBI was part of a three-run third frame as UF opened up a 9-0 lead at that point.
 
In game two, O’Malley was moved up to fifth in the lineup and proved to be a tough out with two hits in five plate appearances. He had an RBI single in the seventh inning.
 
O’Malley also impressed with the pop time, gunning down two would-be base stealers and not allowing any stolen bases against him.
 
He worked with batterymates Colin Gossard (5 IP, 2 H, 9 K) and Jordan Bekier on a four-hitter.
 
North Division Pitcher of the Week
Joe Filosa
Ohio Dominican
Right-Handed Pitcher
RS Junior
Fort Wayne, IN (Northrop HS)
 
Filosa blanked Mercyhurst, a top-10 team in the nation by at least two different media outlets, for seven innings in a tough outcome eventually suffered by the Panthers at Prasco Park, site of the Great Midwest Baseball Championship.
 
Filosa scattered six hits over his seven-inning start and fanned five while walking just one. He faced just five batters over the minimum and had the Lakers pound the ball into 10 outs on the ground.
 
Unfortunately, he was a victim of no run support as he was locked into a pitcher’s duel with Mercyhurst’s Russell Lamovec. The Lakers scored the lone run of the game in the top of the ninth inning.
 
Filosa has made three starts this spring and has a 2.77 ERA in 13 innings pitched.
 
He is the third consecutive ODU member of the pitching staff to earn divisional weekly honors (Matt Kittelberger, Mitchell Bault).