NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee redshirt senior outfielder Hunter Ensley put on a show this past week as he helped the Vols claim a series win over No. 10 Alabama and earn this week’s Tennessee Sports Writers Association College Baseball Player of the Week.
Across four games, Ensley hit .520 (11-for-20) with nine RBI and four runs scored. The Huntingdon native had multiple hits in all four games on the week and had six RBI in the series against the nationally-ranked Crimson Tide.
He had four hits – including two doubles – and three RBI in the midweek contest against East Tennessee State, then went 3-for-4 with two runs score, two RBI and a career-high three stolen bases in the 10-7 win over Alabama. He finished out the series Saturday with another multi-hit game that included a double and three runs driven in to claim the series win.
On the bump, Sewanee sophomore righty Taj Donald earned the Pitcher of the Week honor. During the Tigers’ seven-inning 18-5 win over Rhodes, the Chester Springs, Pa., product went five scoreless frames – including going three-up, three down in the first two innings. He was a model of efficiency, facing just 18 batters in all and coaxing 10 groundouts with two strikeouts.
SOFTBALL: Tennessee Tech sophomore Abbee Klinefelter put together a great week on offense to take the Player of the Week award as she batted .545 on the week in four contests to lead the Golden Eagles to a series sweep over Western Illinois.
For the week, the Clearwater, Fla., Golden Eagle drove in seven runs along and came home to score four times with a .500 on-base percentage and a .636 slugging mark. She went 2-for-3 in two of the games against the Fighting Leathernecks, while also collecting six RBI in Tech’s first three-game conference sweep since 2022. Klinefelter also had two sacrifice flies and a sacrifice hit on the week.
In the circle, Belmont redshirt junior lefty Maya Johnson was the Pitcher of the Week as she went 2-0 on the week to improve to 13-1 on the season. She threw 19 total innings, while striking out 32 along the way.
In all, she allowed just seven hits without yielding a run to compile a 0.00 earned run average on the week. Johnson threw 12 strikeouts in two of her contests in an 8-0 win over Murray State and a 3-0 win at Illinois State.