DALLAS (NCBWA) The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association released its National Player of the Week awards for the period ending March 29. Boston College junior outfielder Chris Shaw was named National Hitter of the Week, while Southern Miss senior right-handed pitcher James McMahon 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.
Shaw led the Eagles to a perfect 5-0 week, including a weekend sweep of Duke. In two midweek games at Northeastern and against Holy Cross, the junior outfielder was 5-for-9 with seven RBI and four extra-base hits. Against the Blue Devils, the Lexington, Mass., native scored in all three games, drove in four runs, and hit his first career walk-off home run on Saturday. For the week, Shaw led the Eagles with 11 RBI, nine hits, and a 1.000 slugging percentage in the five games. He drove in the game-winning run in three of the five wins.
McMahon made two starts during the week and registered a win against No. 14 Rice. The Hattiesburg, Miss., native did not record a decision in a short start against No. 29 Mississippi State due to being on a pitch count. McMahon did not allow a run over 11 innings of work and fanned five, while walking just one over that span.
He improved to 5-0 on the year and saw his ERA drop to 0.99 following his Rice outing. Against Mississippi State, he pitched to one batter over the minimum in his start and pitched to the minimum amount of hitters through the first four frames against Rice. He retired nine batters in a row at one point against the Owls. He was part of a 3-0 shutout victory over MSU, which was the teams fourth shutout of the year as he has pitched in three of those. Southern Miss 6-0-1 in games that McMahon has started in this season and he has posted five quality starts.
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)