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Michigan State's Day and Illinois' Whitmore Tabbed for Weekly Honors
April 3, 2006 Complete Release in PDF Format
BIG TEN PLAYER OF THE WEEK Day earns his first career Big Ten Player of the Week award after hitting 11-for-17 with eight RBI on seven extra-base hits last week. His efforts helped MSU pick up wins in four of five games and open Big Ten play with a 3-1 record. Day marked the start of the week hitting just a double shy of the cycle. He cracked his first career home run and added a triple, going 4-for-4 with four RBI and four runs against Grand Valley State. He followed that performance going 7-for-13 with four doubles and a triple while scoring four runs in the weekend's four-game series against Indiana. In game two against the Hoosiers, Day was again perfect from the plate, going 3-for-3 with a double, an RBI and a run. The four wins this week helped the Spartans get over the .500 hump for the first time this season as the Green and White improved to 12-10. Whitmore earned three saves last week, picking up one in each of Illinois' wins against Indiana State and Purdue. The senior righthander did not allow a hit in three innings of relief work and faced only 11 batters. He struck out three and the only two men to reach base against him were a lead-off walk and on a fielding error Friday against Purdue. Against Indiana State, Whitmore needed only five pitches to retire the side, and he used only nine in the Illini's 3-2 win over Purdue on April 1. For the season, he is now 6-of-6 in save chances and his six saves currently lead the Big Ten. The six saves are already more than Illinois' leading save total of five last season and he needs only four more to eclipse last year's team total of nine. This is Whitmore's first career Big Ten Pitcher of the Week honor.
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