By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech first baseman Chase Chambers and pitcher Ethan Roberts provide the Golden Eagle baseball team with a clean sweep of the Ohio Valley Conference's weekly awards Monday afternoon, with Chambers taking home Player of the Week and Roberts earning Pitcher of the Week honors.
In five wins last week, Chambers hit .600 (12-for-20) with nine runs scored, a double, two home runs, 11 RBI, four walks, a .950 slugging percentage and .667 on-base percentage. His play helped Tech extend the nation's longest winning streak to 25 games (establishing a new OVC record).
The senior drove in a pair of runs in each of TTU's mid-week road non-conference victories. After getting two hits in the opening game of a weekend series with Southern Illinois, he added two more hits, a home run, four RBI and three walks in the second game of the series. He capped the series by going 4-for-5 with a double, three runs scored and three RBI.
Among OVC players, Chambers currently ranks first in RBI (1.41/game) and on-base percentage (.508), second in runs (1.38/game), third in hits (1.59/game) and total bases (2.77/game), fourth in batting average (.397) and slugging percentage (.692), sixth in home runs (0.28/game) and seventh in walks (0.85/game).
Roberts picked up a pair of saves during the week, also contributing to the extension of the Golden Eagle winning streak. In five innings, Roberts allowed just three hits, zero runs and no walks while striking out 12. His two saves increased his career total to 24, establishing a new TTU career record and moving him into fifth place in OVC history.
At Alabama A&M, Roberts entered the game with a one-run lead and pitched the final three innings, allowing two singles while striking out seven of the 11 batters he faced. In the opener of the Southern Illinois series, he combined with Travis Moths for a 4-0 shutout win. The Sparta native struck out the first five batters he faced over the final two frames.
The junior leads the OVC and ranks 19th nationally in saves (9) and has 60 strikeouts and only eight walks in 35.1 innings of work in 2018.
The Golden Eagles are scheduled to return to action in Knoxville with a midweek match-up with in-state foe Tennessee on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. CT.
Photos by Tony Marable
