Reddies, Tigers nominated for GAC weekly honors

ARKADELPHIA — Two student-athletes for Henderson State and two for Ouachita Baptist were nominated for the Great American Conference weekly baseball awards announced on Tuesday.

Henderson State sophomore third baseman Joe Myers and senior Bryant Haralson were nominated for the Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week, respectively.

Ouachita senior first baseman Kyle Alexander and senior J.F. Matros were nominated for the same awards, respectively.

Myers, out of Little Rock Catholic, had the game-tying RBIs in both of Henderson’s wins this weekend against No. 25 Southern Arkansas (25-11, 17-7). The Reddies (23-13, 17-7) entered the weekend one game behind the Muleriders for second place in the conference. The two teams are tied after Southern Arkansas won the series finale, 7-3, on Sunday in the second game of a doubleheader.

Haralson (6-2), of Atkins, pitched a complete game on Saturday, surrendering only five hits in a 4-3 victory to open the series. He struck out six batters and moved to fifth in Henderson history in strikeouts.

Alexander, of Conway, notched three home runs, six runs and five RBIs in the weekend series against GAC-leader Arkansas-Monticello (26-9, 20-4). He is second on the team with 23 RBIs, fourth in batting average at .283 and four in home runs with four.

Matros (2-3), of Arkadelphia, gave up five runs on six hits and four walks to Monticello on Saturday. He left the game after seven innings with eight strikeouts on 145 pitches.

The Tigers (10-29, 6-18) lost the series opener, 15-10, in 11 innings. Matros’ ERA of 3.26 ranks second on the team. He leads Ouachita with 66-plus innings through 10 starts.

Monticello senior second baseman Andres Rios and Arkansas Tech senior first baseman were named the Co-Players of the Week. Also nominated were Brett Akins, senior, Southeastern Oklahoma State; Zach Beasley, senior, Harding; Bryce Dimitroff, senior, East Central; Jorin Van Amstel, senior, Northwestern Oklahoma State; and Dakota Wright, junior, Southern Arkansas.

Southwestern Oklahoma State junior Cooper Cantwell was named the Pitcher of the Week. The other nominees were Matt Goertzen, junior, Northwestern; Cody Nitson, senior, Southeastern; and Kenneth Tabor, senior, Southern Arkansas.

Ouachita lost, 18-4, in a non-conference game to Southern Arkansas on Tuesday and is scheduled for three games at Northwestern (16-21, 9-15) on Friday and Saturday. Henderson is scheduled to host Christian Brothers (10-27) today before a weekend series at Southwestern (20-15, 14-8).