4/22/05 – T.J. Ill, JMU Sports Management Intern

The competition is heating up in college baseball as teams vie for bids to their conference tournaments. Here is how your Turks helped their respective universities in this endeavor: Lucas Delong (USF) has been all about the “fours” recently. He started a four game hitting streak last Friday that has seen him hit his fourth homerun of the season, score four runs, and knock in four Dons. Fore! Matt Sluder (JMU) has hit safely in four of his last five games, batting an outstanding .632 in that stretch. The Dukes catcher also scored four runs, drove in one and collected two doubles. Clay Kovac (ISU) got back to pitching this week after some innings in the infield last week. In 6.2 innings over three games the right-hander tallied a win against Eastern Illinois, scattered just three hits, and struck out six. Kovac is 4-1 on the season with a 3.12 ERA. Reggie Watson (IU) makes his third appearance on this illustrious list with another stellar week. Stealing his 16th base on Tuesday the speedy center fielder moved into 3rd place in the Big Ten Conference. His five game hit streak has produced seven hits and four runs, bringing him to 53 hits and 39 runs scored on the season. These marks place him just behind the Hoosier and Big Ten leader Jay Brant. Ryan Parker (IU) went 4-for-5 on Sunday against conference rival Iowa. Just missing hitting for the cycle, the first baseman connected for two singles, a double and a triple, scoring twice and producing two RBIs. The two-sacker brought him to a dozen, while the RBIs gave him 37 on the season, good enough for third and fourth respectively in the Big Ten Conference. Dean Cademartori (SIU) has a seven game hitting streak of his own. The Saluki has at least a run scored and an RBI in his last four games with his finest undoubtedly being against Tennessee-Martin on Tuesday. Cademartori went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, three RBIs, a walk, a double, his first collegiate homerun and a partridge in a pear tree.