Wabash sophomore Joey Niezer has been named the North Coast Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week after allowing just four hits in two games last week.
Niezer pitched a total of 16 innings, giving up five total runs but only one earned for an ERA of 0.56. He struck out 12 batters while issuing six walks. The righthander from Oldenburg Academy also hit six batters to claim the Wabash and NCAC single season record for hit batters with 21.
He pitched seven innings of relief Tuesday night at the Steel Yard in Gary, Indiana against North Park University, combining with starter Mike Schultz for a no-hitter through five innings. Niezer earned his second victory of the season by giving up just two hits and four walks to the Vikings while tying his season-high in strikeouts with seven. North Park had three runs --- one earned --- against him in the contest.
Sunday afternoon Niezer earned a complete game victory against the number-one ranked team in Division III, the College of Wooster Fighting Scots. The victory snapped the longest winning streak in Wooster school history and left the Scots six wins shy of the DIII record for wins at the start of the year. He picked up his second win of the week and third of the season while holding the Scots to just two hits after Wooster entered the weekend with the 20th-best team batting average in the nation at .348. Niezer surrendered an infield hit in the fourth inning and a two-out RBI single in the seventh, holding the Scots to two unearned runs for the game.
He also helped his cause in the field in the win at Wooster, adding a putout and four assists to his totals for the day. He threw out a run at home in the fourth inning on dribbler in front of the plate that he scooped from his glove to catcher Scott Hamilton for the second out of the inning.
Niezer and his Wabash teammates will play Franklin College at Victory Field in Indianapolis on Thursday evening before returning to Mud Hollow Field for a four-game NCAC weekend series against Ohio Wesleyan.