SAN RAMON, Calif. - University of California San Diego senior second baseman Justin Beck was named Tuesday as the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Baseball Player of the Week for the week of April 16-22.
Beck was the unquestioned leader of an offensive juggernaut as UC San Diego scored 69 runs to sweep a second straight four-game series, over Cal State San Bernardino, and move within a game of first-place Cal State Monterey Bay in the CCAA. The San José State transfer hit .600 (9-for-15) with 10 runs, nine hits, three doubles, three home runs, 13 RBI and 21 total bases, all team highs. He slugged 1.400 with a .632 on-base percentage, and also fielded all 20 of his defensive chances cleanly over four starts at second base.
Beck scored three runs and drove in four, season bests, in each of the final three games of the series, with a double among multiple hits in each and three total home runs. He ignited a 19-0 home romp on Friday night with a two-run home run in the second inning. He added a third-inning single and a two-run double in the fourth, falling a triple shy of the cycle. Beck punctuated his great week with his first two-home-run effort in the seven-inning doubleheader nightcap in San Bernardino Saturday, leading off the second with a solo shot before a two-run blast in his final at-bat in the seventh. He had an RBI double in between.
Beck improved his season average by 42 points over the weekend, from .280 up to a season-best .322. He has reached base safely in 27 consecutive games.
This marks a first CCAA Player of the Week award for Beck. It is the fifth weekly conference award for UC San Diego this season, and second straight. Junior first baseman Tyler Durna was so named on Feb. 13 and April 17, and redshirt junior third baseman Alex Eliopulos (La Jolla/La Jolla HS) on Feb. 27. A third junior, Preston Mott, was the CCAA Pitcher of the Week on March 6.
On Monday, Beck was one of seven standouts from across all levels of college baseball, named as Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Players of the Week. The other six selections were all from the Division I ranks. Prior Triton honorees were Eliopulos on Feb. 26, Jack Larsen on May 15, 2017, and Justin Donatella on March 9, 2015.
UC San Diego (28-13, 24-12 CCAA), the winner of a current-CCAA-best eight games in a row, begins a second straight split-venue league series at home on Thursday night, April 26, against Cal State LA (22-19, 19-17 CCAA). First pitch at Triton Ballpark is set for 6 p.m.
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