DALLAS (NCBWA) – The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association released its NCAA Division II National Players of the Week awards for the week ending on April 24. Maryville graduate student designated hitter, Joey Polak is the National Hitter of the Week and St. Cloud State redshirt freshman lefty Luke Tupy is the National Pitcher of the Week.
Polak (Quincy, Ill./Missouri State) went 10 for 15 (.667) for the weekend and was a perfect 1.000 in the game two victory on Friday at Wheeling Jesuit. He homered four times for the week, including a multi-home run game in Friday’s victory, while also doubling twice for a slugging percentage of 1.600. He broke the school’s all-time career home run record with 28.
Tupy (New Prague, Minn./New Prague HS) etched his name in the record books, spinning the 28th perfect game in NCAA Division II history. He was perfect through seven frames, striking out 15 batters to record SCSU’s first no-hitter since 2013. He recorded just the sixth no-no since at least 1995 for SCSU. The 15 K’s marked the second-most in a single game in program history, trailing on Matt Jensen’s 17 versus MSU Moorhead in 1970.
Division II Regional Players of the Week:
• Atlantic: Assaf Lowengart, Mansfield (Hitter); Joe Sperone, West Chester (Pitcher)
• Central: Brock Reller, Northeastern State (Hitter); Luke Tupy, St. Cloud State (Pitcher)
• East: Tyler Wells, New Haven (Hitter); Andrew Francella, Bridgeport (Pitcher)
• Midwest: Joey Polak, Maryville (Hitter); Derek Clark, Northwood (Pitcher)
• South: Jacob Pajer, Shorter (Hitter); Nathan Madej, Florida Southern (Pitcher)
• South Central: Nick Wolff, Texas A&M-Kingsville (Hitter); Jack Eagan, West Texas A&M (Pitcher)
• Southeast: Paul Grazzini, Georgia College (Hitter); Jared Donalson, Georgia Southwestern (Pitcher)
• West: Mitch Winter, Montana State Billings (Hitter); Matthew Houlihan, Montana State Billings (Pitcher)
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