Monday, April 25, 2005

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (Apr. 25, 2005) - East Tennessee State junior first baseman Blake Church (Roswell, Ga.) was named Southern Conference Baseball Player of the Week Monday morning from the league offices in Spartanburg, S.C. It is the third such award for East Tennessee State this season as senior catcher Caleb Moore (Knoxville, Tenn.) has won the award on two occasions.

Church led the Bucs to a 3-0 record last week, with a win over Virginia Tech on Tuesday and two over SoCon rival Appalachian State this weekend. Blake hit .615 (8-for-13) for the week, with five runs scored, a home run and nine RBIs.

In the two games against Appalachian State, Church was 7-for-8 with five runs scored and nine RBIs. In game one against the Mountaineers, Blake was 4-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBIs while he was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and five RBIs in game two. In that contest, he hit a key grand slam in the seventh that gave the Bucs the lead for good. 

For the season, Church is batting .345 with 29 runs scored, four home runs and 33 RBIs. Church has been on fire recently, recording 18 hits in his last seven games.

The Bucs return to the diamond tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. against Virginia Tech in the Kingsport Classic from Hunter Wright Stadium in Kingsport, Tenn.