Michael Fuhrman, UC San Diego  Baseball Field Player of the Week  Senior • Utility • Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.

• Michael Fuhrman led UC San Diego to a perfect 4-0 week at home, including an impressive sweep of Long Beach State over the weekend to begin The Big West season and garner a first career Big West Field Player of the Week honor.
• Fuhrman hit .429 (6-for-14) with six runs, seven RBI and two walks, providing a pair of three-run home runs against the Dirtbags. The first one went to the opposite field in right center in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 14-2 romp to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead. Sunday’s blast doubled the Tritons’ advantage to 6-0, again in the fifth frame of a 10-1 triumph. They were the first two long balls of 2023 for the Rolling Hills Estates product (11 career).
• The fifth-year senior started all four contests, at three different positions (catcher, second base and left field) and four different spots in the batting order (first, fifth, sixth, seventh), and handled all 15 defensive chances cleanly. As the Triton backstop in Tuesday night’s 14-8 non-league victory over visiting UC Riverside, Fuhrman threw out a career-high three of five would-be base-stealers.
• Fuhrman’s 2023 batting average went up from .241 to .302. UC San Diego is now a winner of seven straight and boasts a 12-6 overall record heading into the final week of a season-long 18-game home stand.
• Fuhrman is UC San Diego’s first weekly honoree of any kind for 2023, and first-ever Big West Field Player of the Week in the program’s third season as a league member. Three Tritons had picked up Big West Pitcher of the Week recognition over the 2021 and 2022 campaigns.

Also Nominated: Nathan Barraza (CSUN); Caden Connor (Cal State Fullerton); Zander Darby (UC Santa Barbara); Kyson Donahue (Hawai'i); Jack Gallagher (UC Davis)

Tyler Stultz, Cal State Fullerton  Baseball Pitcher of the Week  Senior • Left-Handed Pitcher • Livermore, Calif.

• Tyler Stultz fired seven shutout innings under Friday night lights while combining with three teammates on a 10-0 shutout of host UC Irvine, earning the senior southpaw a second Big West Pitcher of the Week.
• Stultz scattered six hits, all of them singles, and a season-low one walk while striking out eight Anteaters over 103 pitches thrown, improving to 2-1 on the year. Stultz posted a pair of perfect frames in the second and third, twice got a crucial punch-out with ‘Eaters at the corners to end the first and fourth, and induced a final batter into a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the seventh.
• Friday marked the longest outing thus far of 2023 among five starts, for the second-year Titan who transferred over after four seasons at Ohlone College. Stultz’s ERA went down to 4.21, with 30 strikeouts tied for sixth in The Big West.
• Cal State Fullerton went on to take Sunday’s rubber game, 9-5, to clinch the noteworthy series victory on the road over a UCI squad that had entered the weekend at 11-3 overall and 4-1 at home. Sunday’s result evened the Titans’ overall mark at 8-8.
• Stultz was Cal State Fullerton’s last Big West Pitcher of the Week, grabbing the final award of 2022 last May 30 after another combined shutout over UCI four days prior thanks to season highs of 8.1 innings pitched and 11 strikeouts.

Also Nominated: Anthony Eyanson (UC San Diego); Harry Gustin (Hawai'i); Mike Gutierrez (UC Santa Barbara); Kenji Pallares (CSUN); Braydon Wooldridge (UC Davis)
 

2023 Big West Baseball Weekly Winners