Seymour national player of week
After taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning against No. 8 North Carolina and recording his first complete game as a Hokie, Virginia Tech starting pitcher Ian Seymour has been named one of nine Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week powered by Diamond-Sports and one of five pitchers named to the squad.
Seymour was two outs away from Tech’s first no hitter in more than 30 years as he shut down North Carolina batters for more than eight innings. The Westborough, Mass., native improved to 4-0 with the victory and is 7-3 in his career at Tech in 19 starts. For the season, he leads the team in wins, innings pitched (33.0), strikeouts (36) and is one of four pitchers in the ACC with a complete game this season.
Freshman Chris Gerard, who took a no-hitter into the seventh inning earlier this year at No. 1 Florida State (March 9), also garnered National Pitcher of the Week honors from Collegiate Baseball.
Big South honors two Highlanders
After helping the Radford University softball team win three games over four days, Kayla Huffman has been named Big South Pitcher of the Week and Destiny Freeman has been tabbed Big South Freshman of the Week, the conference office announced Monday afternoon.
Huffman tossed three complete games in the circle, striking out 11 hitters and allowing only 13 hits across 21 innings. Gardner-Webb was on the wrong end of an absolute gem Friday night when Huffman struck out seven while issuing zero walks in her best performance of the week. The King William, Va. native went 2-1 in those three games to reach five wins on the year with a 3.28 earned run average and a .257 opposing batting average.
Freeman contributed four runs scored and five hits on the week including a pair of home runs. She kicked things off with a home run and two runs batted in against Norfolk State before recording her fourth multi-hit game of the season against Gardner-Webb that also featured a homer and two RBI. The Woodland High School product is currently riding a four-game hitting streak and is tied for fourth in the Big South with five home runs.
Lewis receives honor
Virginia Tech’s Redshirt freshman Mekhi Lewis has been selected as USA Wrestling and TheMat.com’s Athlete of the Week on March 26, 2019.
Lewis knocked off two-time NCAA champion Vincenzo Joseph of Penn State in the 165-pound NCAA finals over the weekend to claim his first NCAA title. Lewis entered the tournament as the No. 8 seed.
His performance at nationals garnered him the NWCA’s Most Outstanding Wrestler honors. He was the fifth ACC wrestler to be named Most Outstanding Wrestler and the first since NC State’s Darrion Caldwell in 2009. Lewis was only the sixth No. 8 seed to win a national title and the first eight seed to win it all at 165 pounds.
H2okies send 11 to nationals
The Virginia Tech men’s swimming and diving team is set to send 11, one of the highest number of competitors in program history, to the 2019 NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships, beginning Wednesday in Austin, Texas.
Representing the Hokies are: seniors – Ian Ho, Jake Lamparella, Ben Schiesl and Norbert Szabo; sophomores – Lane Stone, Sam Tornqvist and Thomas Hallock; and freshmen – Antani Ivanov, Blake Manoff, Henry Claesson and Noah Zawadzki.
Huckleberry Jam point-to-point
Registration is now underway for the fifth annual Blacksburg to Christiansburg run slated for Sunday, May 12. The Huckleberry Jam is a 7.4 mile race beginning at Runabout Sports in Blacksburg, utilizing the entire length of the rail trail and finishing at the Christiansburg Recreation Center.
Shuttles will be available to transport runners back to the starting area after completion.
All finishers will receive an engraved railroad spike with overall awards for the top 3 male and female finishers. Top finishers in each group also receive awards.
Regular entry is $30, after 4/29 $35, race day entry $40.
For more information, visit runaboutsports.com.