Wheeling, W. Va. - On Monday, the Mountain East Conference (MEC) released their weekly Player of the Week honors across their spring sports. After a historic week at the plate, Wheeling University Baseball Player Braden Killens was honored as the MEC Baseball Hitter of the Week award. It is the second time this season that Killens has been honored, with his historic home run highlighting a strong week at the plate.
Killens helped lead the Cardinals to a 3-4 week across seven games, that saw them earn a split in their series finale with Frostburg State, while falling to Walsh and splitting their four-game set with Fairmont State. In their most recent series, the Cardinals picked up wins in their first two games against Fairmont State with wins of 8-7 and 6-3 on Saturday to open the series. In both games, the Cardinal's offense played a big role, helping the team battle back to pick up wins. However, the script was flipped in the final two games of the weekend as Fairmont State would pick up the pair of walk-off wins in the second day of competition, as the Cardinal fell 8-7 and 11-10. The Cardinals now sit at 11-13 in MEC play and have a magic number of two to clinch an MEC Tournament berth for the second consecutive season.
For Killens, it is the second time this season he has been honored as the MEC's Hitter of the Week as he made his presence felt at the plate. Across the seven games, Killens would finish 6-20 (.300) with three home runs and nine RBI to lead the Cardinals. His big blast would come in the final game of the four-game weekend set with Fairmont State, when he hit his 13th home run of the season in the finale. It helped Killens break the team's single-season home run record, a mark he set the year prior, and with two weeks still to go he looks to further build on that record. In the opener of that series, Killens would drive in five RBI, three coming on a three-run home run, as he went 1-4 in the team's 18-7 win over the Falcons.
With Killens winning his second honor of the season, the Cardinals have now had a conference player of the week 27 times this season. It also marks the second week in a row that the Cardinals have had a student-athlete honored after Wheeling Men's Lacrosse's Jack Rowe and Austin Hall took home the Great Midwest Athletic Conference's (GMAC) Men's Lacrosse Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week awards. The Wheeling Baseball team looks to keep their momentum going as they make the push towards the MEC Playoffs.
The Wheeling University Baseball team returns to action on Tuesday, April 23rd, when they host IUP with first pitch at 3 PM.
