University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Best Named Conference USA Pitcher of the Week
3/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 20, 2006
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -Southern Miss senior All-American closer Daniel Best was named the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week, marking the second-straight week a Golden Eagle was honored with a weekly honor.
Senior third baseman Marc Maddox was named Co-Hitter of the Week last week. This week's honor marks the first time since April 2002 (Jesse Crain of Houston) that a closer has earned the Pitcher of the Week honors.
Best made four appearances last week and finished with a win and a save. He pitched seven innings and allowed just one unearned run on three hits, striking out 10 and not walking any. He earned the win in Saturday's game against Troy, retiring 12 consecutive batters, including seven strikeouts. Opponent batters hit .125 off of him for the week.
He came on in the eighth inning in game three with runners on first and third with one out and forced a double play to end the inning. He then gave up two hits but struck out two and forced a fly out to end the game and earn the save.
Best has not given up a extra base hit this season. He had a season high seven strikeouts in relief against Troy in game two and has only allowed two inherited runners to score since the first weekend and both were because of errors.
For the season, he is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 16.2 innings pitched with five saves. He has now had a hand in the decision in seven of his 10 appearances this season. He has given up one unearned run on six hits, one walk and 21 strikeouts and opponents are hitting .109 against him. Left-handed batters are hitting .100 (2/20) and right-handed batters are hitting .114 (4/35) against him.
