BATON ROUGE — One batter who tore up opposing hitting and a pitcher who shut down the hitters earned this week’s Louisiana Sports Writers Association honors as Louisiana baseball players of the week.
Taylor Faul of McNeese State earned the Hitter of the Week title, while LSU’s Clay Dirks brought back Pitcher of the Week accolades off his trip to Arkansas.
Faul was 8-for-14 at the play (.571 average) with two runs scored, 8 RBIs, 3 doubles and 2 home runs as McNeese won two-of-three games with then second place UT Arlington last weekend in Arlington. In the first game win, he was four-of-six with two, two-run home runs and seven RBIs (just one shy of the school record). His slugging percentage for the week was 1.217. Faul, a freshman outfielder, now leads the Cowboys in batting in conference games only with a .348 batting average.
Dirks pitched a brilliant three-hit shutout on Saturday at Arkansas as the LSU Tigers posted a 7-0 victory. The sophomore walked one and recorded a career-high eight strikeouts. Only one Arkansas player advanced to second base as Dirks fired 124 pitches in the outing to get the second shutout of his career. Dirks is now 8-1 on the season with a 3.06 ERA.