INDIANAPOLIS – Two of the top teams from the South Division, Kentucky Wesleyan and Trevecca, claimed Great Midwest Athletic Conference Player of the week honors on Wednesday.
 
Kentucky Wesleyan and Trevecca Nazarene look to be fighting for the top spot in the South with just a couple of weeks to go before the Great Midwest Baseball Championship at Presco Park in Mason, Ohio. The tournament will take place from May 9-12.
 
South Division Player of the Week
Joseph Burke
Kentucky Wesleyan
Sophomore
First Base
Jeffersonville, IN (Jeffersonville HS)
 
The Panthers went 3-1 on the week while Burke is legitimately rounding into one of the nation’s most feared sluggers. He broke a seemingly untouchable record for the most home runs in a single season, a standard previously held by Trevecca’s former MLB Draft pick Hunter Newman.
 
The sophomore leads the conference with 19 home runs to go with a .353 batting average through Kentucky Wesleyan’s first 40 games and has been a stable source of power in the three spot in the batting order.
 
There has been no sophomore slump for Burke whose already impressive .315 clip and his four home runs from his entire freshman campaign have both gone up drastically in year two.
 
This week he had a series against Ohio Valley that ended in a sweep of the Fighting Scots that was very memorable for the Panther first baseman.
 
He went 7-for-13 on the week but in those three games he hit three home runs and drove in six RBI, just a typical weekend series for one of the conference’s best hitters.
 
He also leads the conference in total bases with 113 and ranks second in runs batted in with 47 behind Ohio Dominican’s Colin Kaucher’s 56.
 
South Division Pitcher of the Week
Drew Pierce
Trevecca
Freshman
RHP
Kingsport, TN (Walters Community College)
 
Pierce picked up his first win of his career at Trevecca on Friday night where he was pitted in a battle with Cedarville’s former South Division Pitcher of the Week Josh Kneeland.
 
An impressive performance from the freshman gave him the edge in a night where both pitchers had the opposing lineup’s number.
 
Pierce scattered three hits across seven innings of scoreless work and piled up eight strikeouts to match picking up a 1-0 victory for the Trojans.
 
Pierce has been a Trojan workhorse this spring as he is third in the conference in innings pitched and also leads the league in strikeouts with 72, 12 more than the next Great Midwest pitcher.