Monday, May 08, 2006

(May 8, 2006) - ETSU senior first baseman Blake Church (Roswell, Ga.) capped a tremendous week Monday afternoon.  After sweeping Stetson and pounding out two triples and nine RBI on the week, Church was honored by the Atlantic Sun Conference with his first Player of the Week award of the season Monday afternoon. 

Oh yeah, he received his degree in business from ETSU Saturday morning as well.

Church dominated ETSU's three-game sweep of Stetson offensively.  The senior first baseman batted .529 for the week including a 6-for-11 effort versus the Hatters.  Church went 3-for-3 in Friday's series opener against Stetson, belting two triples and driving in three runs.  On Saturday, Church scored a pair of runs including one in the decisive seventh inning.  His solo home run in the eighth inning of Sunday's series finale tied the game at six, and moved him past Will Edwards for third place in the all-time ETSU career home runs list with 29.  The Bucs would go on to clinch the sweep after plating the game-winning run in the 11^th inning.  On the season, the Roswell, Ga., native has hit 11 bombs, nine of them coming at the start of an inning.  His solo shot also moved him within one RBI of Caleb Moore's career RBI record of 170.  The Bucs currently hold a 2.0 game lead over four teams battling for the last two spots at the upcoming 2006 A-Sun Championship presented by Progress Energy.  

Church is the fourth Buccaneer to win a weekly award from the conference office this year.  Senior pitchers Steven Calicutt (Spartanburg, S.C.) and Jeremy Hall (Gray, Tenn.) and junior outfielder C.J. Lee (Bristol, Va.) were each honored earlier this season.

The Atlantic Sun Conference hands out Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week awards weekly during the 2006 baseball campaign.

The 11-member league headquartered in Macon, Ga., consists of Belmont, Campbell, ETSU, Florida Atlantic, Gardner-Webb, Jacksonville, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Mercer, North Florida and Stetson.