UHV's Gutierrez named RRAC Player of the Week
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1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 18 | 3 |
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Rafael Gutierrez figured his swing out and it couldn't have come at a better time for UHV baseball.
Last week, the graduate senior from Jacksonville, Florida, blasted a pair of go-ahead grand slams, including his first in front of a record crowd of 2,342 as part of Little League Appreciation Night presented by Atzenhoffer, to help the No. 10-ranked Jaguars sweep Texas A&M-Texarkana in a pivotal three-game Red River Athletic Conference series.
For that, the RRAC named Gutierrez its Player of the Week on Monday for the week of March 10-16. He is the sixth UHV player to earn the weekly, award and joins Terry Burrel III and Cristian Garcia as Jaguars to earn Player of the Week. Brady Parker, Jonathan Jones and Julian Garcia have also earned Pitcher of the Week honors this year.
"Being able to be a part of such a big weekend for our team meant everything," Gutierrez said. "We've been working very hard and our sweep against a tough opponent showcased what we're capable of. It's an honor to be recognized, but more importantly, I'm thrilled to be a part of such a great organization."
Gutierrez helped the Jaguars (25-3, 14-1) to their first-ever series win over A&M-Texarkana and maintain a half-game lead over No. 1-ranked LSU Shreveport (25-0, 12-0) in the conference after going 7-for-11 at the plate with a triple and 11 RBIs.
The outfielder has hit in each of the last four games for UHV, going 9-for-15 with 12 RBIs during that time. He's produced multi-hit performances in each of those games to boost his average up to .302 and eclipse the 20-RBI mark with 22 this season.
He's one of 11 Jaguars hitting over .300 this season and one of six players north of 20 RBIs.
"I'm excited to see Raf get recognized," said head coach Jonathan Stavinoha. "He's worked hard over the last couple weeks. That showed last week with a couple of clutch grand slams and him being a spark plug for our offense to get a big series sweep. I can't wait to see how he builds on that throughout the rest of the season."
The Jaguars have won 16 of their last 17 games, including their last 13 home games.
UHV hosts NCAA Division III St. Thomas (TX) in a non-conference game at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Riverside Stadium.