(MSU Billings release)
PORTLAND, Ore. – Helping the Montana State University Billings baseball team to its best opening weekend in program history, junior right-handed pitcher Steen Fredrickson and sophomore catcher Andrew Schleusner have been named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Pitcher and Player of the Week, respectively.
Fredrickson tossed a career-high 7.0 innings, earning the first win of his junior season in MSUB’s 12-5 triumph over Cal State San Bernardino. Fredrickson allowed just one run on four hits in his seven stellar frames, while logging four strikeouts in his first start of the year.
“It was a great start to the year for Steen, as he really commanded the strike zone which led to his success,” commented MSUB head coach Aaron Sutton. “He was huge picking us up after using so many arms on night one. He extended into the longest outing of his career and performed extremely well.”
Schleusner started his sophomore season as MSUB’s leading hitter during a weekend where the team twice upended No. 15 Dixie State University. In MSUB’s 15-7 win over DSU on Friday, Schleusner had a career day going 4-for-5 with his second career home run and six RBIs. Perhaps his biggest hit of the weekend came with the ‘Jackets leading 8-7 in the top of the eighth, when he laced a two-out, two-run single to left field to give MSUB a three-run cushion in the eventual win. Overall in the four games, Schleusner hit .462 (6-for-13), while driving in seven runs, drawing three walks, and not striking out. He also caught three games, and nailed two of the three runners attempting to steal on him.
“If you look at the offensive numbers he put up this weekend that’s what Andrew gets noticed for, but he did a tremendous job handling our pitching staff as well,” said Sutton. “Dixie likes to put the game into motion and he took that away from them behind the plate. Offensively he came up with our biggest knocks of the series, and he has that calm, cool, collected mentality at the dish.”
Fredrickson is in his third year in the program and hails from Ashland, Ore., while Schleusner is in his second year as a starting catcher from Kalispell, Mont. It is the first-career GNAC weekly award for each player.
The Yellowjackets (3-1) head to Caldwell, Idaho to face the College of Idaho in a three-game series over the weekend.
