April 14, 2008

For the first time since the 2006 season, a reliever has earned the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week award. Tulane sophomore LHP Matt Petiton earned the award after picking up two victories out of the bullpen last week. The Hitter of the Week award was shared by two players that faced each other in a weekend series. Although Rice sophomore 3B Diego Seastrunk capped his fine week and the Owls series sweep of UAB with a walk-off grand slam on Sunday, UAB senior OF Phil Bell certainly did his part to have the Blazers in a position to win two of the three games at Reckling Park.

Petiton came out of the bullpen to post a pair of wins after striking out a combined eight batters with no walks while allowing just one run on two hits in 10.0 innings of work. For the week, he posted a 0.90 ERA and a .067 opponent batting average (2-for-30). Petiton allowed one run on two hits over four innings with a pair of strikeouts against Nicholls State. At Houston on Saturday, he came in with two on and nobody out in the fourth. After hitting the first batter he faced, Petiton retired the next 18 in a row - including six via strikeout, which ties his career best - to lead the Green Wave to a 7-5 victory.

Seastrunk hit safely in all four Rice wins last week to extend his current hitting streak to seven games. He batted a composite .471 (8-for-17) with a home run and two doubles for a .765 slugging percentage. For the week, he drove in a team-leading 10 runs and he scored six times. Seastrunk drew two walks, was hit by a pitch and had a sacrifice fly for a .500 on-base percentage. He helped win Sunday's series finale against UAB with a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning.

Bell hit .542 (13-for-24) in five games last week with three home runs, including a grand slam, and 16 RBI. Bell legged out two doubles and two triples and boasted a slugging percentage of 1.167. In UAB's three-game series against No. 7 Rice, Bell hit .643 (9-for-14) with two doubles, one triple and two home runs, while driving in nine runs. Bell's biggest hit of the weekend was on Sunday when he hit a two-run home run to give the Blazers an 8-7 lead in the top of the ninth at Rice. Bell also turned heads in the outfield, saving a game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth by gunning down a Rice player at the plate with the game tied for an outfield assist.