Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina senior
Drew Needham was today named the Southern Conference Baseball Player of the Week for games played May 13-19. Needham hit .538 during the final league series of the season at VMI with four extra-base hits among the seven hits he collected to pace WCU to a .342 team average on the week that included 18 extra-base hits.
Selected and announced by the SoCon office from nominations submitted by the communications or media relations personnel at each institution, Needham collects WCU's fifth weekly honor from the league office this season. He joins classmates in outfielder
Nate Stocum and
Jonathan Todd who swept the weekly plaudits back on March 18, while infielder
Zach Ketterman was honored twice on consecutive weeks in April. The honor is the first weekly award for Needham in his collegiate career.
Finishing 7-for-13 with four extra-base hits including two doubles and a pair of home runs, Needham batted .538 as the designated hitter on the week while amassing a 1.154 slugging percentage. He scored six runs and tallied five RBI as the Catamounts won the series over the Keydets. Needham added three walks and an HBP to boast a team-best .647 on-base percentage last week.
A product of Liberty, N.C., Needham collected hits in all three games on the week as part of an active four-game hitting streak and a nine-game reached base safely streak. Two of his games were three-hit efforts as he finished 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI in Thursday's 8-4 series-opening win before finishing 3-for-5 in the final game of the regular season, homering in the first inning and doubling home the game-tying run in the ninth inning for his two RBI. In Friday's 16-6 win in game one of the doubleheader, he was 1-for-3 with two walks and an HBP to reach base four times with a pair of RBI.
Needham has raised his seasonal batting average by over 60 points over the past month to a season-high .307 entering the postseason tournament. Of his 35 seasonal hits, 26 have gone for extra bases – 10 doubles and 16 home runs, both are his single-season career highs, as are his 40 seasonal RBI. All told a combined 74% of his base hits have gone for extra bases this season for the slugger as he paces the Southern Conference with a .816 slugging percentage. Adding the third-highest walks drawn total on the team (30), he boasts a team-best .471 on-base percentage.
Fourth-seed Western Carolina (28-24) opens play in the 2024 SoCon Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases on Thursday, May 23, at 3 p.m. against the winner of Wednesday's single-elimination game between No. 5 Wofford and No. 8 The Citadel. WCU took 2-of-3 on the road in Spartanburg against the Terriers back in late April and swept the Bulldogs in Charleston at the end of March in the second league series of the season.
Priced at $15 per day, tickets for the 2024 SoCon Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases are available in advance through the Greenville Drive's website and at the Drive ticket office at the entrances of Fluor Field. A variety of paid parking lots are available around the stadium area with FREE parking at the County Square, a 10-minute walk from the stadium. For the convenience of fans, a complimentary shuttle service runs from County Square to the Field Street Gate on game days.
The Catamount Club will host a special Catamount Central at Mac's Speed Shop (930 S. Main Street; Greenville, S.C., 29601) ahead of each game WCU plays in the SoCon tournament. The pregame gathering is scheduled for two hours before the scheduled first pitch of each game, beginning at 1 p.m., on Thursday before the WCU's first tournament game.
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