Northern Sun Players of the Week – 3/16/09

With the end of the winter sports season the Northern Sun Conference has moved up the schedule for announcing their baseball Players of the Week to Mondays going forward.  NSIC Players of the Week

This week’s Player of the Week is Derek West of Southwest Minnesota State University.  West is a senior outfielder from Chamberlain, SD and helped lead the Mustangs to a 4-0 start to the season this past weekend.  In the 4 games he was 9 for 15 (.600) which included 3 home runs, 2 triples and 1 double.  He also had 7 RBI’s and 23 total bases – quite the start.

The Pitcher of the Week was Tony Mueller of Winona State.  Yes, that Tony Mueller!  This is the same player that was Player of the week last week (NSIC Awards 3/10/09) and of whom I wrote a special article talking about his amazing start (Mueller’s Blazing Start).  As a pitcher this week, the freshman from La Crosse, WI started against Lewis University and went 8 innings giving up no runs to get the win.  He only gave up 3 hits while walking 2 and striking out 9.  The Conference office press release did say he is now 4-0 on the season when in fact he is 1-1 on the season and it’s Winona’s Ross Hellenbrand who is 4-0.  Mueller has cooled off a bit at the plate.  Even though he has hit safely in every game his batting average is down to .574.