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March 3 Baseball Players of the Week
USM's Bowden Earns Piching Honor; Hitting Awards Shared

	Trey Wiedman

March 3, 2008

Southern Miss senior righthander Barry Bowden has been named Conference USA Pitcher of the Week following his dominating performance in last Friday's 6-0 win at No. 25 Louisiana-Lafayette. Hitter of the Week honors are being shared by Memphis sophomore 1B Trey Wiedman and Rice sophomore 3B Diego Seastrunk for their consistent hitting prowess over five outings.

Bowden gave Southern Miss its first win of the season over a nationally-ranked opponent, throwing a complete-game, two-hit shutout at No. 25 Louisiana-Lafayette on February 29. He tied a career high with 10 strikeouts and did not walk a batter. Bowden retired the final 13 batters of the game and 26 of the last 27 for his fourth career complete game.

Wiedman led the Memphis offense this past week, hitting .647 (11-for-17) with seven RBI, three home runs and three runs scored, while also walking three times for a .700 on-base percentage. Wiedman homered in all three Memphis wins, including posting a solo shot and a three-run blast in consecutive games to help the Tigers win the weekend series vs. Ohio University. More impressively, the Tiger first baseman was perfect at the plate in three of the five games this week. He started the week by going 5-for-5 vs. UT-Martin and 2-for-2 vs. Murray State to tie the Memphis record with hits in seven consecutive plate appearances. The Germantown, Tenn., native then went 4-for-10 with two homers in the weekend series vs. Ohio. Included in the weekend was a 3-for-3 performance in a 5-4 Tiger win. He wrapped the week up by going 1-for-3 with three RBI and providing Memphis with the knockout punch--the three-run blast--en route to a 9-4 series-clinching victory.

Seastrunk was one of the Owls' offensive leaders for five-straight wins last week, particularly at the annual Houston College Classic Tournament at Minute Maid Park where he was named the event's Most Outstanding Player after leading the Owls to wins over three Big 12 foes. For the full week, Seastrunk batted a composite .455, collecting 10 hits in 22 at bats with two home runs and two doubles for an .818 slugging percentage. On the week he shared the team lead in RBI (8) and he scored six times. Seastrunk also executed two sacrifice bunts and was error-free at third base in 19 total chances.