DALLAS (NCBWA) The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association released its National Player of the Week awards for the period ending March 22. Florida State junior outfielder DJ Stewart was named National Hitter of the Week, while Oregon State freshman right-handed pitcher Drew Rasmussen was named National Pitcher of the Week. The NCBWA Board reviews candidates from each Division I Conference each week and names winners each Tuesday throughout the season.
Stewart finished the week hitting .417 with five hits in 12 at-bats, tallying three home runs, seven runs scored, 10 RBI and nine walks with an on-base percentage of .667 and a slugging percentage of 1.167. A native of Yulee, Fla., he tied a career high with six RBIs in Sunday's rubber game as the Seminoles clinched the weekend series from Virginia with a 13-1 victory, the first series victory for Florida State in Charlottesville since 2004. On Saturday, Stewart registered a key two-out single to give the Seminoles a five-run cushion in the sixth and broke an 8-8 tie with a solo home run in the eighth. Stewart finished the weekend series against the Cavaliers reaching base on 12 of his 16 plate appearances.
Rasmussen retired all 27 batters he faced in Oregon State's 3-0 win Saturday, which helped the Beavers to their first sweep of Washington State since 2006. The Spokane, Wash., native struck out 10, got to a three-ball count twice and needed just 103 pitches to complete his day. His perfect game was the first in the conference since 1973, and the first against a current league member. He was the 24th pitcher to record a perfect game nationally since the NCAA started keeping that record in 1957. Of those 24 perfect games, his was just the 12th to go nine innings. Rasmussen's outing was the sixth no-hitter in school history and the fourth under head coach Pat Casey. His perfect day improved his season mark to 3-0 and lowered his earned run average to 1.36. Opponents are batting just .204 against him and he has struck out 40 to just five walks. In 39 2/3 innings this season, Rasmussen's WHIP stands at an impressive 0.86.
Founded in 1962, the NCBWA is dedicated to the advancement of college baseball. Membership is open to writers, broadcasters and publicists of the sport. For more information about the NCBWA, visit the association's official Web site, www.ncbwa.com.
For more information on the NCBWA Division I National Players of the Week, contact NCBWA Assistant Executive Director Mike Montoro at West Virginia University at 304-293-2821.
2015 NCBWA Division I Players of the Week:
Feb. 15: Eric Gutierrez, Texas Tech (Hitter); Luke Gillingham, Navy (Pitcher)
· Feb. 22: KJ Harrison, Oregon State (Hitter); Preston Morrison, TCU (Pitcher)
· March 1: Braden Bishop, Washington (Hitter); Alex Robinett, Army (Pitcher)
· March 8: Dante Flores, USC (Hitter); Carson Cross, Connecticut (Pitcher)
· March 15: David Thompson, Miami (Hitter); Chris Chism, Tennessee Tech (Pitcher)
· March 22: DJ Stewart, Florida State (Hitter); Drew Rasmussen, Oregon State (Pitcher)
· March 29: Chris Shaw, Boston College (Hitter); James McMahon, Southern Miss (Pitcher)
· April 5: Christin Stewart, Tennessee (Hitter); James Reeves, The Citadel (Pitcher)
· April 12: JJ Schwarz, Florida (Hitter); Anthony Kay, Connecticut (Pitcher)
· April 26: Kevin Kaczmarski, Evansville (Hitter); Kevin Hill, South Alabama (Pitcher)
· May 5: Clayton Meyer, Morehead State and Bryce Greager, Nevada (Hitter); Matt Hall, Missouri State (Pitcher)
· May 12: Jeff Boehm, UIC (Hitter); Thomas Eshelman, Cal State Fullerton (Pitcher)
· May 19: Tyler Lawrence, Murray State (Hitter); James Kaprielian, UCLA (Pitcher)