CAMBRIDGE, Mass.
– Stony Brook junior pitcher Franke Vanderka threw a no-hitter to earn America
East Pitcher of the Week honors, while teammate Austin Shives was named Rookie
of the Week and Binghamton’s Jordon Smucker earned Player of the Week, the
conference office announced Monday.
Vanderka (Levittown, N.Y.) tossed a no-hitter in the
Seawolves’ 2-0 win over Fordham, going nine innings, striking out six batters
and walking only three (one intentionally). It was the second no-hitter of
Vanderka’s career, as he also threw one as a freshman at NJIT in 2011. The game
was scheduled as a seven-inning game, but went into extra innings as the two
teams were scoreless. The Seawolves scored twice in the top of the ninth and
Vanderka set the Rams’ 2-3-4 hitters down in order in the ninth to secure the
no-hitter and the win.
Shives (San Diego, Calif.) was
named Rookie of the Week after hitting .417 in four games last week,
second-best on the team and fifth-best in the conference, while driving in two
runs, both coming in Stony Brook's 5-1 win over Iona on March 5. He followed
that performance with a three-hit game at Fordham, the first three-hit game of
his young career. In the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, he hit his
first career double. He registered hits in three of Stony Brook’s four games,
finishing with a .462 on-base percentage and a .500 slugging percentage.
Smucker (Bird-in-Hand, Pa.) helped
Binghamton to a four-game series sweep at North Carolina A&T, racking up a
conference-best eight RBI last week. Smucker finished with a .312 batting
average, five runs score, two doubles, one home run and two walks. Smucker had
a .389 on-base percentage, and a .625 slugging percentage which was the
second-best in the conference last week. He had multi-RBI performances in three
of the four games, including driving in three in each of the first two. He also
had a three-hit game in the series finale, scoring three runs and driving in
two more.
2013 America East Baseball Weekly Award Winners
Feb. 18 –Player of the Week: Colin
Gay (Maine); Pitcher of the Week: Frankie Vanderka (Stony Brook); Rookie of the
Week: Daniel Zamora (Stony Brook)
Feb. 25 – Player of the Week: Michael
Fransoso (Maine); Pitcher of the Week: Tommy Lawrence (Maine); Rookie of the
Week: Logan Fullmer (Maine)
March 4 – Player of the Week: Jake Thomas
(Binghamton); Pitcher of the Week: Jay Lynch (Binghamton); Rookie of the Week:
Jake Cryts (Binghamton)
March 11 – Player of the Week: Jordon Smucker
(Binghamton); Pitcher of the Week: Frankie Vanderka (Stony Brook ); Rookie of
the Week: Austin Shives (Stony Brook)