INDIANAPOLIS – With a championship trophy in hand, Trevecca Nazarene secured the final honors of Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball Players of the Week as announced on Monday afternoon.
The top-seeded Trojans pulled off a regular season conference title and finished the postseason at the pinnacle at PRASCO Park with the conference tournament victory as conference coach of the year Chase Sain guided his program to a 4-0 record in the bracket.
The Trojans also earned the conference AQ into the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional and it marked the fourth time in Great Midwest history TNU completed a conference tournament title run.
The tournament field will be announced through the selection show streamed live on Sunday, May 23, at 10 p.m. ET on NCAA.com.
Player of the Week
Trey Vanderpool
Trevecca Nazarene
Shortstop
Senior
Dacula, GA (Mountain View HS)
In a park that doesn’t surrender too many home runs, Vanderpool launched one of the most memorable at PRASCO Park to help Trevecca Nazarene win the conference tournament title in the championship series vs. Tiffin.
The slick-fielding infielder was just as good with the glove as his bat after recording three consecutive multi-hit performances. The senior showed off his range and made high degree of difficulty plays look routine while manning the middle infield with senior 2B Ethan Harrison.
Vanderpool was 7-for-15 at the dish to bat .467 in four postseason games for the Trojans and he finished with 7 RBI. He homered and doubled twice while scoring a pair of runs.
Vanderpool hit a three-run blast on Saturday to the left center gap to help the Trojans erase a sizeable deficit with one swing of the bat.
Against Malone, he was 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base. He followed that up the next day vs. Kentucky Wesleyan going 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. On Friday in the winner’s bracket, he helped TNU advance one more round with a 2-for-5 line including two RBI.
In the title game, he had 4 RBI, including a sacrifice fly in the third inning that put TNU on the board.
Pitcher of the Week
Jay Benard
Trevecca Nazarene
RHP
Senior
Metropolis, IL (Massac County HS)
Armed with an intimidating beard/goatee, Benard flourished when put into dangerous, high leverage situations out of the bullpen in the playoffs.
Benard slammed the door shut for saves against No. 4 seed and conference preseason favorite Kentucky Wesleyan and then went a little above to earn another save vs. No. 5 Tiffin in the championship game.
Benard recorded the final six outs of the game on Saturday with his team up 7-6 after Trey Vanderpool’s go-ahead three-run bomb in the seventh inning.
He recorded four strikeouts in two outings and only gave up one hit in three innings pitched. Benard, a first team all-conference reliever along with teammate Tiger Cox, has 16 career saves which ranks second in conference history behind KWC’s Alex Franzen (22).
Benard now has 9 saves going into the NCAA Midwest Regional for TNU.