BASEBALL: Vanderbilt’s Toffey, Wright garner TSWA accolades
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt’s Will Toffey and Kyle Wright swept the Baseball Player and Pitcher of the Week honors, respectively, from the Tennessee Sports Writers Association on Wednesday for their performances from May 15-21.
Toffey batted .625 (10-for-16) with a pair of doubles, two home runs, eight RBIs and eight runs scored in four games for the Commodores. The Barnstable, Mass., native posted two hits, scored twice and drove in three runs, including a two-run homer, in a mid-week contest against Middle Tennessee.
The junior infielder collected two hits with one RBI and a run scored in the series opener against Alabama and matched a career-best with four hits and four runs scored, adding three RBIs in the second game versus the Crimson Tide. Toffey finished the series with his second homer of the week and eighth of the season in the finale against Alabama, recording a double in the contest as well.
He is batting a team-best .337 with 11 doubles, 52 RBIs, 46 walks and 45 runs scored in 50 games this season.
Wright struck out 11, including the final six batters he faced, in 7.1 innings against Alabama, allowing one run on just five hits. He gave up a walk and a double to start the fourth inning but did not allow another baserunner, retiring 13 straight before exiting the contest.
The righthander has posted at least 11 strikeouts in each of his last three outings, tallying 35 total punchouts in three games. He improved to 4-5 with a 2.91 ERA in 89.2 innings over 14 starts this season, allowing just 67 hits with 104 strikeouts. Opponents are batting only .206 against him.
2017 TSWA BASEBALL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
February 14 – Ryan Addington, Carson-Newman (Player); Travis Dohr, Cumberland University (Pitcher)
February 21 – Nolen Milton, Union University (Player); Evan Heffner, Maryville College (Pitcher)
February 28 – Collin Harris, Tennessee Tech (Player); Brady Puckett, Lipscomb (Pitcher)
March 8 – Wade Weinburger, Bryan College (Player); Michael Wood, Tennessee Tech (Pitcher)
March 15 – Ryan Flick, Tennessee Tech (Player); Alex Robles, Austin Peay (Pitcher)
March 21 – Austin Krajnak, Cumberland University (Player); JR Miller, Union University (Pitcher)
March 29 – Matt Jones, Tennessee Tech (Player); Trey Sledge, Rhodes College (Pitcher)
April 6 – J.P. Castaneda, King University (Player); Octavio Mirabal, King University (Pitcher)
April 11 – Ryan Kemp, Middle Tennessee (Player); Matt Ruppenthal, Vanderbilt (Pitcher)
April 18 – Paul Kirby, Carson-Newman (Player); Kyle Wright, Vanderbilt (Pitcher)
April 26 – Nick Egli, Belmont (Player); Blake Glaudeb, Rhodes College (Pitcher)
May 2 – Alex Robles, Austin Peay (Player); Denton Norman, Lipscomb (Pitcher)
May 10 – Dan Kerwin, UT Martin (Player); Kyle Wright, Vanderbilt (Pitcher)
May 18 – Parker Phillips, Austin Peay (Player); Cody Puckett, Middle Tennessee (Pitcher)