Suzuki earns
national honorThe former Baldwin star
is named National Player of the
Week for Cal State Fullerton
Baldwin High School alumnus Kurt Suzuki today was named National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball newspaper.
Suzuki, from Wailuku, is a junior catcher for Cal State Fullerton. He has reached base in his last 11 appearances and has hits in his last nine official at-bats (one shy of the Fullerton record).
Kurt Suzuki
In the Titans' three-game sweep of Cal Poly last weekend, he batted .846 (11-for-13) and reached based in 13 of his 15 appearances.
Suzuki had eight singles, a double, a triple and a homer on the weekend and had the game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth in Friday's 3-2 win.
He followed with a 5-for-5 effort in the Titans' 27-2 rout on Saturday before going 3-for-3 on Sunday. His Sunday stats also included getting hit by a pitch and being intentionally walked.
On the season, Suzuki is batting a Big West Conference-best .442 (72-for-163 in 46 games).
He is on the watch list for the Johnny Bench Award, which is presented annually to college baseball's top catcher.
He leads Fullerton in nine statistical categories: Besides batting average, Suzuki is Fullerton's No. 1 in hits (72), runs (47), RBIs (55), slugging average (.687), home runs (eight), walks (38), on-base average (.545) and runs produced (96).
His fielding average is .993 (two errors in 277 chances), second on the team by .004. He is also second in doubles (14) and stolen bases (six).
Fullerton has won 13 of its past 15 games, improving to 28-18 overall and 11-1 in Big West Conference.
Track and field
Lauran Dignam sliced 1.37 seconds off her previous best collegiate time Saturday and set a University of Washington record for the women's 400-meter dash.Dignam, a sophomore from Aina Haina, is a 2002 graduate of Iolani School.
Her time Saturday in a dual meet at Washington State was 54.41 seconds, 3/100ths of a second faster than the six-year-old school record.
Dignam easily met the NCAA regional qualifying standard.
Later she qualified for the Pac-10 championships in the 200 meters in 24.34 seconds -- sixth-fastest in school history and her collegiate.
Softball
Junior center fielder Kaleo Eldredge (Baldwin '01) took over the batting-average lead for No. 4 California's softball team when she went 5-for-5 in a weekend trip to Arizona.Eldredge rocketed her average up to .364 (47-for-129) in 47 games. She shares the team lead with 39 runs scored, leads the Golden Bears in stolen bases with 14 in 14 tries, and has driven in 25 runs.
