Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Baseball's Luke Nelson Named MVC Pitcher Of The Week
03/25/2002 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
March 25, 2002
St. Louis, Mo. - On Monday, March 25, Southern Illinois University senior pitcher Luke Nelson (2-1) was named Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week for the week of March 18-24. The award is the first in his Saluki career.
"It's nice to see young men like Luke, who have had such a strong commitment to our program with his attitude and work ethic, be rewarded for his efforts. He had an incredible performance on Sunday against Bradley and deserves this honor," said Dan Callahan, Saluki head coach.
"I'm not only proud, but happy to see the fourth student-athlete on our team be honored by the MVC this season. That says something about the student-athletes we have in the program and I hope it translates into team success."
On Sunday, March 24, Nelson threw a complete-game, six-hit shutout in a 1-0 win over Bradley. He struck out five and didn't allow a walk. Nelson faced 30 batters (three over the minimum) and only three batters reached scoring position. He allowed one double and five singles.
Nelson, an Oconomowac, Wisconsin native, pitched a career-high nine innings and his first career complete game as a Saluki. He fell one strikeout short of his career-high set earlier this season (six vs Eastern Michigan on March 10).
Nelson's 1-0 win gave SIU a split in their season-opening MVC series with Bradley last weekend. The Salukis will next host Creighton in a four-game series at Abe Martin Field on March 29-31.
In addition to Nelson, Jerel Deitering was honored as Pitcher of the Week on February 18 and Toby Barnett (February 25) and Ross Kowzan (March 10) were honored as Player of the Week by the MVC.
