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Bay City, Mich. -- Wayne State University senior shortstop Matthew Williams (Detroit, Mich.) and Hillsdale College senior pitcher Scott Monterastelli (Ottawa, Ill.) have been named GLIAC Baseball "Player" and "Pitcher of the Week," respectively it was announced by the league office. 
 

GLIAC Baseball "Player of the Week":
Matthew Williams - Wayne State
(RSr, SS, S/R, Detroit, Mich./Henry Ford CC)

Senior shortstop Matthew Williams led WSU with a .579 average (11-19), as well as a .684 slugging percentage and .619 on-base percentage, in the team’s five wins last week. He had four multiple-hit games, including a pair of three-hit performances, scored four runs and drove in five. The senior shortstop was also error-free on the field, totaling eight putouts and 14 assists. Williams currently has a career-best 10-game hitting streak and leads the Warriors with a .384 overall batting average.

Weekly Honor Roll:  Tyson Rowland - AU, Bobby Herberger - UF, Steve Anderson - GV, Pat Krebs - HC, Ryan Rumsey - NU, Mike VanAlst - SV. 

2009 GLIAC Baseball Players of the Week:  (3/19) J. Foltz - AU; (3/23) C. Grice - GV; (3/30) M. Williams - WS. 

GLIAC Baseball "Pitcher of the Week":
Scott Monterastelli - Hillsdale
(Sr, RHP, Ottawa, Ill./Waubansee CC)

Senior right-handed pitcher Scott Monterastelli pitched the Chargers to their only win last week, going 7 1/3 innings in a 10-4 win over Northwood. Scott posted a 0.80 ERA while giving up only nine hits, one earned-run, and one walk in the outing. Monterastelli struck-out four Timberwolves in the outing. Scott is currently sixth in the conference in innings pitched with 33.0 and ninth in opponent batting average, with teams hitting just .279 against him.

Weekly Honor Roll:  Aaron Hilt - AU, Matt Weber - UF, Danny Richard - GV, Eric Kinley - NU, Collin Coulter - SV, David White - WS.

2009 GLIAC Baseball Pitchers of the Week:  (3/19) D. Richard - GV; (3/23) A. Benjamin - GV; (3/30) S. Monterastelli - HC.

-- GLIAC Baseball Weekly Notes --

Ashland - Ashland went 3-1 this past week against conference foes. The 18th-ranked Eagles defeated the top-ranked team in the country Grand Valley State on Thursday (Mar. 26) in a 5-4 decision. On the weekend, AU took two out of three games at Saginaw Valley State. The Eagles won 10-4 and 9-3 on Saturday, before dropping the game on Sunday, 10-5. Ashland improved its record after the week to 20-8 overall and 5-2 in the GLIAC. Outfielder Ryan Avery led the Eagles with seven RBI and hit the only home run for the Eagles on the week. Outfielder Jeff Foltz continued his stellar play getting seven hits in 16 at bats. On the season, he now has a .558 batting average on the season. Last week, he was leading Division II in batting average. Aaron Hilt had the best week on the pitching staff. Hilt started one game, throwing five and a third innings, giving up one earned run and earning a victory. For the week, Hilt had a 1.69 ERA. The Eagles travel to Wayne State on Wednesday (Apr. 1) for a 2 p.m. doubleheader. Then this weekend, AU hosts Hillsdale on Saturday (Apr. 4) and Sunday (Apr. 5).

Findlay - Bowling Green State University scored in every inning except the seventh to cruse to a 10-5 victory over The University of Findlay baseball team on Tuesday, March 24 in Bowling Green, Ohio… Findlay then split a pair of games on Thursday, March 26 at Fifth Third Field against Northwood University. The Oilers won the first game 3-2 and then lost the second game 9-8. In the first game Matt Weber got the win by allowing six hits and two runs in seven innings of work. At the plate the Oilers had five hits as Kyle Wilson had two, including a double. Bobby Herberger, Drew Marsh and Kevin Patton each had a hit apiece… The Oilers lost three games to Wayne State University on March 28-29 in Detroit, Michigan. The losses give the Oilers a 4-19 record on the season with a 2-8 record in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC).The Oilers will be back in action again on March 31 when they play Heidelberg College at 3:00 p.m. in Tiffin, Ohio.

Grand Valley State - Grand Valley State went 3-1 on the week, with a three-game sweep over Tiffin and a one-run loss to Ashland...The week started with a 5-4 loss to Ashland and ended with a 5-2, 8-3, 8-1 sweep of the Dragons...GVSU is ranked No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball DII rankings and the NCBWA DII poll...Freshman SS Steve Anderson (Northville, Mich.) went 5-for-9 on the week and leads the Lakers in batting average (.457) and on-base percentage (.652)...Sophomore Danny Richard (West Bloomfield, Mich.) and senior Andre Benjamin (Grand Ledge, Mich.) both maintained their perfect records on the mound with wins against Tiffin to advance to 5-0...GVSU is 24-3 overall and 8-1 in conference play...As a team, the Lakers are first in Division II in win percentage (.913) and second in earned-run average (2.3)...GVSU also ranks third in hits allowed per nine innings at 6.85...Offensively, the Lakers are batting .350, which is 13th in the country, and rank 20th with 8.8 runs scored per game...Senior 3B Josh Hillyard ranks ninth in Division II in batting average (.493) and 10th in on-base percentage (.568) through games on March 22...Hillyard is the ninth-toughest batter to strike out in the nation (33.5 at-bats), while senior Casey Robrahn (Jenison, Mich.) is the third-toughest at every 89.0 at-bats...Richard is first in the nation in walks allowed per nine innings (.35) and third in earned-run average (.35)...He also ranks fourth in hits allowed per nine innings (3.81).

Hillsdale - The Hillsdale College baseball team lost four out of five games, played over a three-day span last week…The team was forced into the five-games-in-three-days schedule because its doubleheader against Saginaw Valley State was pushed back from Wednesday to Thursday, and its Sunday game vs., Northwood was bumped to Friday…Two of those four losses came in extra innings and the four losses came by a total of five runs…Pat Krebs hit two home runs against Northwood, bringing his team-leading total to six for the season…He also leads the team with 20 RBI…Krebs is the only player on the team with more than 20 hits, 20 runs scored and 20 RBI, averaging nearly one per game in each category…Senior Brandon Hubbard is now Hillsdale’s all-time leader in doubles…Freshman Will Tidwell pitched three scoreless innings vs. Northwood on Saturday…After playing six home games in the month of March, the Chargers will be on the road this week, playing the top two teams in the GLIAC, Ashland and Grand Valley State.

Northwood - Northwood went 3-2 last week to stand at 12-9 overall, 6-4 in the GLIAC … the Timberwolves split a doubleheader at Findlay before taking two of three at Hillsdale over the weekend … NU is now just one win short of matching their total from last year in the GLIAC, when the Timberwolves went 7-25 overall … Ryan Rumsey (Roscommon, Mich.) led the Northwood offense, batting .500 while finishing with an on-base percentage of .611 … NU had not hit a home run in 12 games heading into the series finale at Hillsdale before Adam Rider (Midland, Mich./Bullock Creek) ended that streak with a grand slam in the fifth inning that gave Northwood a 5-4 lead after trailing 4-0 heading into the inning … Northwood eventually earned the win in the 10th inning … Eric Kinley (Saginaw, Mich./Heritage) earned his first win of the season against Hillsdale … Kinley has pitched well throughout the season despite having just one win – he leads the Northwood starters with a 1.96 ERA … the Timberwolves will travel to Tiffin Wednesday before hosting Wayne State in a weekend series.

Saginaw Valley State - The Cardinals improved their performance this week by going 3-2 overall, first beating Hillsdale College in two games, 7-6 and 3-2 on March 26. SVSU’s bats got going early in the first game against the Chargers by posting four runs in the bottom of the first, and two more in the bottom of the second for an early 6-2 lead. Hillsdale would make it interesting by adding three runs in the top of the third inning, but Saginaw Valley would respond with one run in the fourth. Hillsdale would add one more run to cut SVSU’s lead to one, but it wasn’t enough as the Cards went on to win 7-6. In Game 2, the Cardinals got on the board in the bottom of the second as junior Ryan Webber (Clio, Mich.) would hit a double, and would advance on a throwing error to score on the next play as junior Josh Peterson (Midland, Mich.) hit a sacrifice fly to left field. After that, the bats were calm for four innings as the game turned into a pitcher’s duel between SVSU’s junior Jon Tibaudo (Harper Woods, Mich.) and Hillsdale’s Charlie Fisher. Through seven innings, Tibaudo would strike out seven batters. Sophomore Scott Horman (St. Louis, Mich.) came in for the save in the eighth inning and allowed one hit while striking out one. Against Ashland in Game 1 on March 28, the Cardinals would cut a six-run Ashland lead in half in the bottom of the second inning in what was a solid inning of offense as the Cards were able to get five hits. On the game, freshman Mike VanAlst led the Cardinal offense going 4-for-4. In the game, the Cardinals out-hit the Eagles 13-10. In Game 2, the Cards were able to put on a late-game rally, as they put three runs on the board in the bottom of the sixth. In Game 3 on March 29, the Cardinals came out swinging, as they were able to put five runs on the board in the first two innings after a two-hour weather delay. SVSU would then put five more runs on the board in the third inning as sophomore Dustin Mayner (Gaines, Mich.) clobbered a home run to left field, followed by a double off the bat of senior Kevin Schwedler (Midland, Mich.). Junior Charlie Thomas (Northville, Mich.) would knock in two more runs with a one-out double, and then would come around to score with junior Ryan Webber (Clio, Mich.) on a throwing error to go up 10-4. Ashland would add one run in the fifth, capping the scoring at 10-5 before the game was called due to inclement weather. The Cardinals hope to take the momentum from the big victory over the Eagles into Findlay this week to take on an Oilers team they have beaten twice before, and then hosting Tiffin University for a three-game stretch on April 4-5.

Tiffin - TU went 0-5 for the week, dropping a number of close, competitive games against Wayne State and Grand Valley State…The Dragons struggled to come up with clutch hits during the week, batting just .241 overall while opponents hit .377…Jason Bailey hit .385 to lead the Dragons starters while Val Helldobler hit .333 with a team best 6 RBI over 5 games…Adam Greening also batted .500 over 3 games…TU averaged 3 runs per game for the week and had just 7 extra base hits in 5 games…Brad Davis did not allow a run in 2 relief appearances, while Pat Curtin had the best ERA amongst Dragons starters with a 3.38 mark in his lone start against Grand Valley State. He allowed 2 earned runs in 5.1 innings of work…TU’s pitching staff posted a 8.03 ERA for the week.

Wayne State - The Warriors won all five of their games last week to extend their winning streak to six overall…two victories Thursday at Tiffin and a three-game weekend sweep against Findlay moved WSU into second place in the GLIAC…Wayne State totaled 15 runs in consecutive games, a 15-5 victory in the second game at TU and a 15-2 triumph in the series opener versus Findlay…both run totals were series highs against both programs…Ryan LaPensee (LaSalle, Ont./St. Thomas of Villanova) and Matthew Williams (Detroit, Mich./Royal Oak Shrine) each set career-long hitting streaks this past week…LaPensee stretched his streak to 12 games in Saturday’s opener, while Williams saw his streak reach 10 games Sunday…Williams and Phil Swanson (Rochester Hills, Mich./Stoney Creek) led the WSU offense this week, hitting .579 (11-19) and .556 (10-18), respectively…catcher Michael Wiseman (White Lake, Mich.), who caught every single inning in the five games, also hit .412, drew four walks and scored a team-high eight runs…Wayne State’s victory Sunday was the 1000th in program history…WSU has an all-time record of 1000-1144-15 (.467) in 69 seasons…the Warriors will travel to Central Michigan on Tuesday before hosting Ashland on Wednesday…they will then begin a 10-game road swing this weekend at Northwood.