Mavericks Win MIAA Baseball Athlete of the Week No
May 12, 2009 | Baseball, General
OMAHA, Neb. - The UNO baseball team won both athlete of the week awards handed out by the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association this week. #Evan Porter was named the MIAA's hitter of the week while Ben Percival# was recognized as the MIAA pitcher of the week. It's the second time Percival has been so honored. The awards come on the heels of the Mavericks' MIAA championship win last Sunday, May 10.
Porter, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound senior from Omaha, batted .583 (7-for-12) with two home runs, six runs batted in and seven runs scored as the fourth-seeded Mavericks captured the MIAA Tournament championship last weekend.
The two four-baggers gave Porter the UNO career home run record with 43.
He was 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and a run scored as the Mavericks knocked off top-seeded Emporia State, 6-3, on Friday (May 8). His run-scoring groundout in the third inning gave UNO a 2-0 lead and he made it 6-0 with a two-out single in the sixth.
In the 4-0 win over third-seeded Missouri Southern in the winner's bracket final Saturday (May 9), he put the Mavericks on top 2-0 with his first-inning home run.
He was 3-for-5 in the title-clinching 12-9 win over second-seeded Central Missouri. Porter led off the Mavs' five-run fifth inning with a home run and put UNO ahead in the top of the ninth with an RBI single after the Mules rallied to tie the game at 9-9.
Porter is a graduate of Millard North High School.
Percival, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound senior from Clive, Iowa, pitched a two-hit shutout in the winner's bracket final of the MIAA Tournament against Missouri Southern Saturday (May 10).
He threw 102 pitches -- 67 for strikes -- and had a perfect game through four innings before giving up a lead-off single in the fifth inning. The only other hit he gave up in the game was a single to open the sixth inning.
Percival faced just three batters over the minimum in the game, striking out six and walking one. Two others reached on errors and he induced two double plays as he snapped a streak of three consecitive losing decisions.
Percival, the MIAA's second 10-game winner of the season (joining Missouri Western's A.J. Huttenlocker), is a graduate of West Des Moines (Iowa)-Valley High School and transferred to UNO from Western Illinois University following his junior season.
