April 16, 2012

CONWAY - Coastal Carolina senior Rich Witten was named the Big South Conference's Choice Hotels Co-Baseball Player of the Week, along with Liberty's Ryan Cordell.

Witten posted nine hits and six RBI to lead the Chanticleers to a 4-1 record last week, including a series sweep against VMI to vault the Chanticleers into first place in the Big South Conference. He posted a hit in all five games for Coastal Carolina and went for multi-hit outings against UNC Wilmington on April 10 and VMI on April 15. In the series finale against the Keydets, Witten went 3-for-4 with a two-run double and a walk-off homer, accounting for all three runs in the 3-2 win to lift Coastal to the series sweep. He finished the week with six total RBI, a .474 average at the plate and a slugging percentage of .684.

Cordell hit .692 in Liberty's series win against Winthrop over the weekend. Liberty's John Niggli was tabbed the league's Pitcher of the Week.

Coastal Carolina (24-11) will face Virginia Tech Tuesday in Blacksburg, Va., at 5:30 pm. The Hokies are 25-13 and are coming off back-to-back wins over sixth-ranked Miami (Fla.). The Chanticleers and Hokies met on Feb. 25 earlier this season with Virginia Tech claiming a 3-1 win despite CCU starter Josh Conway striking out 10 over seven innings.