LA JOLLA, Calif. - UC San Diego's Jack Larsen was named Tuesday as the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Baseball Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 22-28. Later in the evening, he added National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) West Region Player of the Week distinction.
Larsen is UCSD's first weekly honoree of the 2016 season, and is now a two-time CCAA Player of the Week for his college career, having previously been chosen as a sophomore on Feb. 3, 2015. The NCBWA accolade is his first. Former Triton ace Justin Donatella was a two-time NCBWA Pitcher of the Week last year.
The junior outfielder out of Mission Viejo (Capistrano Valley HS) led UCSD to a four-game sweep of its first CCAA series of the year, over Cal State San Bernardino. He hit a team-best .563 (9-for-16) with team highs of nine hits, 10 RBI and 16 total bases. Larsen had multiple hits in three of the games and at least two RBI in each, capped by a career-high-tying four in Sunday's home finale as he launched a two-run home run, his team-leading fourth, in the first inning, and added a two-run single in the second. The four RBI Sunday gave Larsen a second 10-RBI week already for 2016, four weeks in, and moved him atop the CCAA in that category with 22.
Larsen had three hits, including his league-best third triple, in Friday night's opener in La Jolla, falling a home run short of the cycle. He added three more in Saturday's doubleheader nightcap on the road. His RBI double in the first began the scoring, with an RBI single in the sixth giving the Tritons a 5-1 lead in a narrow 5-3 decision.
Larsen slugged 1.000 with two doubles, the triple and home run, and handled all nine defensive chances cleanly, including a shoestring catch on a liner to center to end a five-run CSUSB fifth Sunday that saved two runs and would have tied the game at 7-7. UCSD pulled away again and won it, 16-5, for its seventh straight victory.
Larsen's 2-for-4 effort in that Sunday matchup pushed him over the .400 mark in batting average for the first time this season, now at a team-best .403 (25-for-62). He has at least one hit in 15 of 16 games, as one of just two Tritons to start all 16.
The weekend sweep moved the Tritons up from No. 11 to No. 5 in Monday's latest Collegiate Baseball Newspaper national poll. It is their highest rank under fifth-year head coach Eric Newman, and best since a No. 3 showing on March 7, 2011.
Sophomore right-hander Jack Rupe, Jr. (San Marcos/Mission Hills HS) was nominated a second straight week for CCAA Pitcher of the Week, after another lengthy, winning relief stint, this time striking out a career-high eight over 5.1 innings (2 H, R, 0 BB) in Saturday's doubleheader opener, during which he retired 14 straight Coyote batters. That award went for a second time this year, however, to Cal Poly Pomona's Peter Bayer.
UCSD faces another four-game, split-venue series with a CCAA South Division foe this week in second-place Cal State LA. The teams will play a pair of single contests in La Jolla on Friday, March 4 (6 p.m.) and Saturday, March 5 (2 p.m.), before the set concludes with a doubleheader at CSULA's Reeder Field on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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