UC Irvine's Scott Gorgen and UC Riverside's James Simmons earned a share of Big West Baseball Pitcher of the Week honors, while Simmons' teammate Aaron Wible received Big West Baseball Player of the Week accolades, for the week ending April 8. This is Gorgen's first honor of the season, while Simmons picked up his second consecutive honor and third of the season. Wible becomes the third different Highlander to nab the player of the week award this year.
Gorgen (Concord, Calif.) pitched eight scoreless innings Thursday to lead UC Irvine to a 2-1 win over No. 12 Cal State Fullerton Thursday evening. The 5-10 right-hander did not allow a walk and retired the side in order in five of the eight innings. He also struck out five, while allowing only four hits. The Anteaters went on to win their first series (2-1) over the Titans since 1980. Gorgen has now won five straight decisions and lowered his ERA to 2.44.
Also tossing eight scoreless innings was UC Riverside's James Simmons (Norco, Calif.), who gave up just two hits, struck out 10 and walked none. It was Simmons' second double-digit strikeout game of the season and his third straight outing in which he had not issued a walk. In Thursday's 9-0 win over UC Santa Barbara, the 6-4 junior opened the game by setting down the first 12 Gauchos before conceding a lead-off bloop single in the fifth. In Simmons' last three starts, he is 3-0 with a .37 ERA.
Wible (Riverside, Calif.) batted 7-for-13 (.538) and blasted at least one home run in all three contests against UC Santa Barbara to guide the Highlanders to a 2-1 mark to open Big West play. In Thursday's contest, he gave UCR a 1-0 lead in the second with his first of two home runs. Later in the game he knocked his second long bomb to lead off the seventh. He finished the evening 3-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored, reaching base in four of his five plate appearances. It marked Wible's first career multi-hit home run game and the first Highlander to master such a feat since May 21, 2005. He tied both Friday and Saturday’s games with two-run home runs in each and scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth in Saturday’s series-clinching win. For the week, the 6-3 junior scored seven runs, while driving in seven more.