Texas State's Smith Adds NCBWA Pro-Line Athletic Pitcher of the Week Award
DALLAS, Texas - The accolades continued to come in for junior Carson Smith on Tuesday who was named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Pro-Line Athletic National Pitcher of the Week. Smith, who earned Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week and Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week accolades on Monday, has now received two weekly national awards for his pitching performance last Friday.
Smith struck out the leadoff batter in all eight innings he pitched en route to a career-best 14 strikeout performance. The right-hander allowed just two hits, both singles, in his eight innings on the mound while keeping the Roadrunners off the scoreboard. Smith earned his seventh win of the season as the Bobcats won 3-0 before also defeating UTSA on Saturday and Sunday for the I-35 Rivalry Series sweep.
With the performance, Smith lowered his season ERA to 1.88, and he increased his season strikeout total to 97 in 81.1 innings. The outing was also Smith's 10th consecutive quality start of at least six innings pitched with three-or-less earned runs allowed, the seventh longest active streak in the nation.
Smith was one of three players to receive Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week accolades on Monday, joining Mike Augliera of Binghamton and Jeff Holm of Michigan State.
So far this season, Smith has a 7-3 record to go along with a conference-best 1.88 earned-run average. His 97 strikeouts top the Southland Conference chart and already surpass his total of 94 strikeouts last season. Smith needs 31 strikeouts to surpass the single-season strikeout record of 127 set by Blake Williams in 2000.
Also receiving NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week honors was Alex Meyer of Kentucky while Jeff Holm of Michigan State was named the NCBWA Hitter of the Week.
Pro-Line Athletic, owned by Badger Sport, supplies caps and uniforms to several D-1 college baseball teams, and this is the seventh season Pro-Line has sponsored the NCBWA's Players of the Week. For more information about Pro-Line and Badger, visit their web sites at: www.badgersport.com and www.prolinecap.com 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.