Monday, February 20, 2006

Macon, Ga. – Hurlers Andrew Urena of Mercer and Jeremy Pepelbon of UNF led their teams to impressive unbeaten weeks while Jacksonville’s Justin Young dominated a preseason All-American as the trio claimed Atlantic Sun Conference weekly honors.

Urena picked up his first career Pitcher of the Week award after picking up three saves in four Mercer wins last week. The biggest of the efforts saw the senior fan a pair of Gators while tossing a scoreless ninth inning to hand the Bears a 3-2 win over the nation’s top-ranked team. Over the weekend, the right-handed pitcher did not surrender a run over 3.0 innings of work to notch two more saves that secured Mercer’s series sweep of Bethune-Cookman. The San Juan, Puerto Rico, native leads the conference in saves (3) and has yet to surrender a run in 9.0 innings. Urena majors in Finance.

Pepelbon fired 7.0 shutout innings to help UNF clinch the series victory over former A-Sun member and four-time regular season champion UCF. Behind Pepelbon’s work on the mound, the Ospreys captured the series’ second game 13-0, their second straight blanking of the Golden Knights. The junior lefty allowed just three singles and a pair of walks during his outing while fanning seven batters to pick up his first win of the season. UNF would go on to sweep the series. The Jacksonville, Fla., native is majoring in Business Management.

Young was instrumental in leading the Dolphins to a three-game sweep and the program’s first series win over South Florida since 2001. In game one of the series at Red McEwen Field, Young went 2-for-3 with a double and made several key plays in center field to give the Dolphins a 4-3 win. In game two, he led an offensive onslaught against preseason All-American Casey Hudspeth by going 2-for-3 with a home run and four RBI en route to an 11-6 victory. In the finale, Young had an RBI single and hurled 1.1 innings of relief to lead the Dolphins to an 8-4 win. For the week, the Oveido, Fla., native batted .556 (5-9) with a double, a home run, five RBI and a 1.000 slugging percentage. Young majors in Computer Information Systems.

The Atlantic Sun Conference hands out Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week awards weekly during the 2006 baseball campaign.

The 11-member league headquartered in Macon, Ga., consists of Belmont, Campbell, ETSU, Florida Atlantic, Gardner-Webb, Jacksonville, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Mercer, North Florida and Stetson.

OTHER TOP PERFORMERS
• Josh Drewery, Gardner-Webb (Fr. – SS – Lawndale, N.C. – Undeclared Major)
Batted .636 with no errors during Gardner-Webb’s 2-1 showing at Winthrop’s Coca-Cola Classic

• Tim Brown, Jacksonville (Fr. - RHP – Jacksonville, Fla. – Undeclared Major)
Earned a win and save in relief during JU’s three-game sweep of USF