Pac-12 Announces Baseball Players of the Week

SAN FRANCISCO - The Conference office announced today Chris Baker of WASHINGTON was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week and for the second time this season Travis Eckert of OREGON STATE was tabbed Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week for action between May 16 - 22.

Baker (San Mateo, Calif.) went 10 for 17 (.558) with multiple hits in all four of Washington's games where the Huskies posted a 3-1 record overall, going 2-1 vs. Stanford and 1-0 vs. Northern Colorado. He hit one home and a double, scored 4 runs, drove in four runs, had a slugging percentage of .824, an on-base percentage of .632 and a 1.456 ops. Baker hit a two-run HR that gave UW a 2-0 lead in Monday’s 4-2 win over Northern Colorado, going 2 for 4, scoring 2 runs and added 2 RBI. In Friday’s 5-4 walk-off win over Stanford he had a career-high four hits (in five at-bats). He also drove in a run that gave UW an initial 1-0 lead, started the 9th inning winning rally with a single and scored the winning run later in the inning. Baker followed up that performance by going 2-5 with a walk in 8-7, 12 inning loss on Saturday. On Sunday, he went 2-3 with a go-ahead first inning RBI double in a 4-0 win. The honor is the first of Baker's career and the 63rd all-time for the Huskies.

Eckert (Austin, Texas) earned his sixth win after throwing his first career complete game in Oregon State’s 3-1 win over USC Friday night. The senior took a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Pac-12’s top offensive team. Eckert ended the night by allowing just three baserunners and faced only one batter over the minimum. The first hit he surrendered came with two down in the seventh after he retired the first 20 batters he faced. Eckert recorded five strikeouts on the night and needed 111 pitches, 72 of which went for strikes. USC put the leadoff batter on base just once, on the eighth-inning home run. The effort sent him to the win and improved his season record to 6-4. The team’s lone senior, he has a team-leading 61 strikeouts and opponents are batting .243 against him. This is Eckert's second-career honor and the 79th all-time for the Beavers, the second-most in Conference history.

Washington will host a three-game series this weekend against Utah with the Pac-12 title on the line. Oregon State hosts UCLA in its final homestand of the 2016 regular season. Each game in both series will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks. The Pac-12 Networks full television information can be found here.

ALSO NOMINATED
Player: David Greer, ASU; Austin Grebeck, ORE; Michael Gretler, OSU; Quinn Brodey, STAN; Luke Perisco, UCLA; Jeremy Martinez, USC.
Pitcher:  Seth Martinez, ASU; Cole Irvin, ORE; Jayson Rose, UTAH.

2015-16 PAC-12 PLAYER AND PITCHER OF THE WEEK