Oregon's Josiah Cromwick named Collegiate Baseball national player of the week
Oregon Josiah Cromwick was a one-man wrecking crew for the Ducks during the opening weekend of the season.
As a result, the junior catcher has been tabbed by Collegiate Baseball as one of its 12 national players of the week.
During Oregon’s four-game sweep of Xavier to open the season, Cromwick featured in three of the games and went 4-for-9 (.444) with three home runs, a double, six RBI, four runs scored, and a stolen base while reaching base at a .500 clip and slugging an impressive 1.556. He also caught three of the four games and served as a steady presence behind the dish for Orgon’s stable of young pitchers.
Cromwick is just the third Ducks’ position player and 12th overall player in program history to be recognized by Collegiate Baseball as a national player of the week.
“I think I was just relaxed,” Cromwick following Oregon’s win on Sunday. “I was able to see the ball well today and yesterday, and just trying to get a good pitch to hit and help our team win.”
Cromwick ripped a double during the Ducks’ season-opening win on Friday. The next day, he launched two homers and racked up a career-high five RBIs to lead Oregon to a 9-2 win in seven innings.
He sat out the second game of the doubleheader that day, then returned to the lineup on Sunday and lifted a solo homer in the seventh inning to tie the game at 1-1.
Cromwick and the Ducks will look to continue their strong start when they travel to UC Santa Barbara on Friday to kick off a four-game series in Goleta, Calif.
Even after the sensational start to the year, Ducks’ coach Mark Wasikowski is still looking for signs of improvement from his team.
“Well we are 4-0 so you can’t get grumbly about a lot of things, but the things I think we could improve upon are, you know, we didn’t hit this weekend,” Wasikowski said on Sunday. “We slugged and we got enough to win, which was great. We hit in the clutch, which was great.
“Overall, I thought our approach just needs to get more refined to be able to be more consistent and have a sustained offense which would be one thing we didn’t have this weekend.”
Oregon players who have earned Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week honors
· Josiah Cromwick (2/20/23)
· Brett Walker (4/5/21)
· Kenyon Yovan (3/8/21)
· Spencer Steer (4/15/19)
· Kenyon Yovan (4/30/18)
· Parker Kelly (3/12/18)
· David Peterson (5/1/17)
· David Peterson (3/13/17)
· David Peterson (3/7/17)
· Cole Irvin (5/2/16)
· David Peterson (3/6/16)
· Shaun Chase (5/5/14)
