LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - The #6 Centenary Gents have another D3Baseball.com Team of the Week award winner, as well as two more Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Players of the Week.
Announced Tuesday, April 18, Junior catcher Chris Zapata became the third Gent this season (for the fifth time) to be named to D3Baseball.com Team. Also released this week, Zapata and junior Kaleb Kirk were named Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively.
Simply put, these two have been doing it all year for us," said head coach Mike Diaz.
Zapata led the Gents offensively this past weekend, as they wrapped up their second SCAC outright Regular Season Title in three seasons. He batted .769 (10-for-13) with three runs and nine RBI's - six of which were plated with two outs. With six extra-base hits (four doubles, two home runs) he finished with a 1.538 slugging percentage.
Behind the dish, Zapata threw out 2-of-3 runners attempting to steal.
For the season, Zapata leads the nation - and is eight better than the next player - in RBI's with 58. He also leads the conference and is nationally ranked in total bases (103, second), home runs (nine, ninth), hits (56, 14th), doubles (14, 16th), and slugging percentage (.741, 30th). He is second in the SCAC (to teammate Michael Schimpf) and 144th in the nation with a .403 batting average.
The SCAC Player of the Week nod is the third of 2017 for Zapata.
His fourth SCAC Pitcher of the Week honor, Kirk (7-3) jumpstarted the sweep of Southwestern this past weekend by throwing a complete game four-hitter in a 7-1 Gents win on Friday night, April 14. He kept the Pirates off the scoreboard for the first six innings and ended the game with 11 strikeouts - the third time he has recorded double-digit strikeouts this season. He threw 114 pitches, 78 of which were strikes.
Among SCAC pitchers, Kirk sits second in both wins (seven) and strikeouts (74), ranking 10th in the country in both categories.
It is the seventh-time overall and the fifth time this season a Gent has been named to the D3Baseball.com Team of the Week (Junior Kaleb Kirk and Senior Michael Schimpf, week one, Kirk week five, and Schimpf week 6 this season; Holden Novak, week one and week five in 2016).
Centenary closes out the 2017 regular season this weekend when they play a pair of seven-nine inning doubleheaders against Louisiana College. First pitch in Shreveport Friday night, April 21, is set for 4 p.m. First pitch in Pineville is set for 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon, April 22.
