Roller Takes Home Third National Honor
March 25, 2009 | Baseball
March 25, 2009
RICHMOND, Va. - East Carolina junior designated hitter Kyle Roller picked up his third national award Wednesday when he was named Central Regional Player-of-the-Week by Collegebaseinsider.com after helping the Pirates to a perfect 5-0 week, which included an opening Conference USA series sweep of UCF.
Roller, who was named the Conference USA and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Hitter-of-the-Week as well as being selected to the College Baseball Foundation National All-Star Lineup, batted .591 (13-for-22) and added four home runs, 15 RBI, two walks, one strikeout and five hit by pitches. He hit three homers in the Pirates' sweep of C-USA foe UCF, including two during Friday night's series opener. The Rockingham, N.C., native scored 11 runs during the week and tied his career high by scoring four times against the Knights on Friday. Roller also recorded a career-high five hits with two round-trippers and five RBI in Friday's contest.
Over the five games last week, Roller posted four multi-hit and multi-RBI contests. He also helped ECU establish school and conference records for runs scored in consecutive games (52) and school records for five-game scoring (90) and five-game hitting (98).
The left-handed power hitter continued his hot hitting Tuesday, Mar. 24 when he lifted the Pirates (17-4, 3-0 C-USA) to a come from behind win over Campbell, 10-9. After an RBI double in the first and his eighth home run of the season in the third frame, Roller ripped a two-out two-RBI single through the left side pushing across a pair of runs giving ECU the lead heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. On the night, he went 4-for-6 with four RBIs and collected his fifth multi-hit and multi-RBI game in the last six contests.
Roller is the first Pirate to be named Central Regional Player-of-the-Week by Collegebaseinsider.com since 2007 when T.J. Hose was tabbed player-of-the-week after helping the Pirates to a series sweep over No. 9 Cal State Fullerton at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The Pirates will host in-state foe No. 26 UNC Wilmington Wednesday, Mar. 25 with a first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. (EDT).
