Big South Announces Baseball Players of the Week - March 16
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (
www.BigSouthSports.com) – Longwood infielder
Jon Howard (Kinston, N.C.) has been named the Big South Baseball Player of the Week, while Presbyterian College's
Christian Charalambous (Bergenfield, N.J.) and Winthrop’s
Mason Tompkins (Travelers Rest, S.C.) are the Co-Starting Pitchers of the Week for games played March 9-15, it was announced today. In addition, High Point’s
Noah Zimmerman (Lititz, Pa.) was selected as the Relief Pitcher of the Week, while Winthrop utility
Grant McGuire (Nevada, Ohio) is the Freshman of the Week honoree.
Howard batted .529 (9-for-17) with four home runs in four games for the Lancers, finishing the week with a 1.294 slugging percentage and a .556 on-base percentage. He added one double, five RBI and four runs scored while recording two three-hit performances and three multi-hit games overall. Howard highlighted the week with a 3-for-5 outing against George Mason, including two home runs, a double and three RBI. He then hit .500 (6-for-12) in the weekend series against Gardner-Webb, collecting two hits Friday and three more Saturday, including solo home runs in each game.
Charalambous tossed a complete game shutout against UNC Asheville on Saturday, allowing just four hits while striking out a career-high seven batters. The redshirt-sophomore recorded the first complete-game outing of his career and became the first Blue Hose pitcher to throw a complete game shutout since 2017. He did not allow a hit through the first 4.2 innings and retired the side in order in the second, third, fourth and seventh frames as Presbyterian went on to a 11-0 victory over the Bulldogs to even the series. Charalambous issued his lone walk of the game in the opening inning.
Tompkins allowed just one hit over 8.0 innings while striking out a career-high seven batters to earn the midweek win against Princeton. He walked only one batter, yielded three total baserunners and carried a no-hitter through 6.2 innings. The sophomore held the 25 hitters he faced to a .043 batting average and capped his longest outing of the season by retiring the side in order, finishing the inning with a swinging strikeout.
Zimmerman earned two wins out of the bullpen against Duke and USC Upstate, allowing just two hits over 6.1 innings while striking out nine. He opened the week with 2.0 innings of relief against the Blue Devils, surrendering two hits and one run with three strikeouts to earn the win. Zimmerman followed with 4.1 hitless innings and a season-high six strikeouts Sunday against the Spartans, helping High Point overcome a two-run deficit to win 7-5 and avoid a series sweep in the conference opener.
McGuire batted .455 (10-for-22) with two doubles, eight RBI and 12 total bases across five games for Winthrop. He reached base at a .500 clip while slugging .545. The freshman recorded multiple hits in three contests, including two three-hit performances against Radford. McGuire totaled seven hits and six RBI in the three-game series, capping the sweep with a 3-for-4 effort featuring two doubles and three RBI.
Also nominated for Player of the Week:
Diego Guevara (Gardner-Webb),
Seojun Oh (High Point),
Christian Charalambous (Presbyterian),
Maloy Heaghney (USC Upstate) and
Jaylen Hernandez (Winthrop).
Also nominated for Starting Pitcher of the Week:
Reid Bertram (Gardner-Webb) and
Jaxon Lloyd (Longwood).
Also nominated for Relief Pitcher of the Week:
Colby Humphries (Gardner-Webb),
Wyatt Bunch (Longwood),
Max Kaplan (USC Upstate) and
Colby McNeely (Winthrop).
Also nominated for Freshman of the Week:
Colby Putnam (Gardner-Webb),
Ben Pulliam (Longwood) and
Bo Moody (Presbyterian).