Wabash sophomore Joey Niezer was recognized by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association as an Honorable Mention selection for Pitcher of the Week.
The righthander from Oldenburg Academy was 2-0 on the mound, allowing just four hits and one earned run in 16 innings pitched last week. Niezer struck out 12 batters while walking six.
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, nine-inning 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.
Sam Heaps from Elizabethtown College and Brad Mountain of Eastern Nazarene College were both recognized by the NCBWA as Co-Pitchers of the Week. Heaps threw a no-hitter in an 11-0 win over Juniata, striking out six and walking three batters over seven innings. Mountain was 2-0 for the week with two complete-game shutouts. He allowed only eight hits and three walks while striking out 21 batters in his two appearances.