Cal's Kade Kretzschmar and Oregon's Jace Stoffal collect national honors
SAN FRANCISCO - The reigning Pac-12 Baseball Player and Pitcher of the Week, California's Kade Kretzschmar and Oregon's Jace Stoffal, continued to reap the benefits of their outstanding performances last week, picking up a pair of weekly national awards. The duo swept the D1Baseball.com and the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) National Player and Pitcher of the Week honors, becoming the first from Pac-12 baseball to earn the nods during the 2023 season. Stoffal earned NCBWA co-pitcher honors with Rutgers freshman Christian Coppola.
Kretzschmar, the 2022 Ivy League Player of the Year and graduate transfer from Dartmouth, led the Bears to a 4-1 record last week that included a Pac-12 road series win at Utah. The outfielder went 15-for-21 (.714) with a pair of home runs, three doubles, 10 RBI, six runs scored, two walks and a stolen base over the five games. He recorded multiple hits in all five games and drove in multiple runs in four of five contests. He was even better in Salt Lake City, going 10-for-13 (.769) at the plate, tying a career-high with four hits in the series-opening win and coming up a triple shy of hitting for the cycle in a 3-for-3 day to help Cal clinch the win in the finale Sunday.
Stoffal became the first Pac-12 pitcher to earn back-to-back conference weekly nods since 2020 and first for Oregon since 2012 after he turned in another dominating Friday night performance on the mound. This week it was a complete-game shutout against No. 8 Stanford in a 4-0 series-opening win at home. The junior held down the conference's top scoring offense, limiting the Cardinal to three hits and four base runners total while striking out eight. Stoffal has now won four straight Friday night starts and owns the league's top ERA of 2.64.
Stoffal's teammate Sabin Ceballos also earned some national praise as he was named one of Collegiate Baseball's National Players of the Week after hitting .368 (7-for-19) with 3 HR, 11 RBI and four runs scored to help the Ducks to the big series win over Stanford. The pair have been key to Oregon winning 15 of its last 18 and climbing solidly back into the national rankings.