Kansas City, Mo. -- The tenth-ranked Missouri Southern baseball team has once again swept the MIAA Weekly Baseball Awards as
Jesse Rall and
Zach Litchen have been named the AstroTurf MIAA Baseball Player and Pitcher of the Week, the league announced today.
Rall shares the award with Pittsburg State's Andrew Vogelbaugh. This week, Rall, 6-3 native of Lincoln, Neb.,
helped the then No. 15 Lions to a 4-0 week with wins against NSU in non-conference action and a sweep of McKendree. Against NSU, Rall had a run and an RBI as he went 0-2 with two hit by pitch.
In game one against McKendree Rall picked up a cycle as he went 5-5 with a home run, two triples, a double and a single. He drove in five and scored four times in the game. In game two against McKendree, Rall went 1-3 with a home run, three RBIs and a run scored. His three-run homer in the game sparked a four-run sixth inning in a tied game and proved to be the game-winner.
In the finale against the Bearcats, Rall went 1-4 with a run scored. For the week, Rall had seven hits, a double, two triples, two home runs, seven runs scored and hit .500. He also slugged 1.286 and had a .611 on base percentage, while being hit four times by a pitch. Litchen, a 6-3 native of Denton, Texas,
had a busy week for the Lions as he picked up a three inning save against Northeastern State and got a six inning win in relief over McKendree on Saturday. Against NSU, Litchen struck out four and walked none while allowing just one hit in three innings for the save. The one hit was his first batter which he retired with a double-play in the next hitter and then went on to retire the final seven in a row to finish the game.
Against McKendree, Litchen came in with the Lions' pitchers struggling to find the strike zone and went six innings, allowing just two hits, no runs and striking out six, while walking just one. He retired 18 of the final 21 batters he faced. On the week, Litchen had a win and a save, while allowing no runs and striking out 10, walking one and limiting batters to a .111 average.
The Lions will begin MIAA play this weekend as Southern plays host to Lindenwood for a three-game series beginning on Friday. First pitch from Warren Turner Field is slated for 3 pm.
