BASEBALL: Tennessee’s Gilbert, Vanderbilt’s Leiter named TSWA Players of the Week
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee’s Drew Gilbert and Vanderbilt’s Jack Leiter earned Tennessee Sports Writers Association’s Baseball Player and Pitcher of the Week honors, respectively, for games from March 22-28.
Gilbert batted .385 (5-for-13) with three doubles, one home run and seven RBIs in four games for the Volunteers, including a series sweep against LSU.
The Stillwater, Minn., native started the week with two hits, two runs and two RBIs in a 13-5 win over Eastern Kentucky. He also pitched one shutout inning of relief in the win against the Colonels.
The sophomore doubled home a run in the seventh inning in the series opener versus LSU. Gilbert tied the second contest against the Tigers with a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the ninth and then hit a walk-off solo homer in the 11th inning for the win, his team-leading sixth home run of the season.
His RBI groundout plated the first run in the series finale for the Vols. Gilbert is batting .326 with five doubles, six homers, 27 RBIs and 12 runs scored in 25 games this season.
Leiter extended his hitless innings streak to 16 with seven no-hit innings at Missouri, walking two and striking out 10.
The Summit, N.J., native struck out the side in the fifth inning and two batters in the first and seventh. He also induced five groundouts and upped his mark to 6-0 with a 0.25 ERA in 36.0 innings this season, allowing one earned run on seven hits. He has walked 13 with 59 strikeouts and opponents are batting just .062 against him.
2021 TSWA BASEBALL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
February 23 – Andrew Keene, Lincoln Memorial (Player); Gunner Becker, Tusculum University (Pitcher)
March 2 – Dominic Keegan, Vanderbilt (Player); Joshua South, Belmont (Pitcher)
March 10 – Fuzzy Furr, Tusculum University (Player); Elijah Pleasants, Tennessee (Pitcher)
March 16 – Isaiah Thomas, Vanderbilt (Player); Kumar Rocker, Vanderbilt (Pitcher)
March 23 – Liam Spence (Tennessee); Jack Leiter, Vanderbilt (Pitcher)