WOOSTER, Ohio -- In the wake of his tremendous pitching performance against Wittenberg University last week, Christopher Newport sophomore
Brandon Cassedy has been named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) National Pitcher of the Week. Cassedy collects the honor in addition to being named the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week and after being selected to the D3baseball.com National Team of the Week.
Cassedy becomes just the fourth CNU player in the history of the award, dating back to the 2003 season, to collect either National Pitcher or Player of the Week honors from the NCBWA. John Corbin was the first, earning Co-National Player of the Week on March 6, 2005; then, Tommy Vitaletti earned the same selection on February 21, 2016. Last year,
Dylan Weber became the first CNU pitcher to garner the National Pitcher of the Week selection on April 19 and is now followed by his teammate, Cassedy, as the only players to be selected.
For all games between February 26 and March 5, Cassedy's eight-inning, 16-strikeout performance against Wittenberg was selected as the top performance by a Division III pitcher last week. He became just the third Captain in program history to strike out 16 or more in a game and tied for the second most K's by a single pitcher in a game with his outing. The right-handed starter scattered three hits and a walk while facing just four batters over the minimum in his eight frames.
Taking on Wittenberg in the Armstrong Invitational hosted by Methodist University, Cassedy picked up his third win of the season after combining with two relievers for a shutout victory, 4-0.
The sophomore from Manassas, Va. is now 3-0 with a 0.47 ERA in 19.0 innings pitched this season. He has allowed just one run on nine hits this season with a 14.7 K/9 rate while ranking seventh in Division III in total strikeouts and second in the country in total wins.
Cassedy and the Captains are scheduled to face Penn State Harrisburg in a three-game series this weekend with a doubleheader slated for Saturday, March 10 at 11:00 a.m.
