Florida Atlantic's Mark Nelson and Louisiana-Lafayette's Jordan Nicholson has been named the Sun Belt Conference's Baseball Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, the league office announced on Monday. This is the first award for either player this season.

Nelson hit three homeruns and drove in 11 runs in the three-game sweep at FIU, the Co-Preseason SBC favorite. The junior hit two homeruns as part of a career-high six-RBI night in Saturday’s 9-5 win with his first homerun helping start a comeback.

With the Owls trailing 4-1 in the sixth inning, Nelson connected on a two-run homerun to bring the Owls within one run at 4-3. Then, the next inning, he capped a six-run seventh inning with a grand slam to give FAU a 9-4 lead.

On Sunday, he hit a three-run home run to increase FAU’s lead to 7-2. For the week, he hit .389 (7-for-18) with four runs scored, three home runs and 11 RBI. All four of his hits against FIU drove in a run. Nelson also tallied a .944 slugging percentage and reached base 40-percent of his at-bats.

ULL's Nicholson tossed a complete game shutout for the Ragin’ Cajuns in Friday’s SBC opener, outdueling Louisiana-Monroe’s Randy Zeigler in a 5-0 victory. Nicholson averaged a shade above 12 pitches per inning and the middle three frames was the only time the Warhawks managed to get traffic on the base path.

Nicholson retired the first 10 Warhawks he faced, not allowing a hit until one out in the fourth inning. He ended the game by retiring 10 consecutive batters after a two-out single in the sixth inning. The leadoff batter only reached once off of Nicholson and he held the Warhawks to four hits.

Nicholson became the first Cajuns pitcher to toss a nine-inning, complete game shutout in conference play since Zach Osborne fired a one-hit shutout at Troy on April 9, 2010 at “The Tigue”. The performance marked his first complete game shutout in a ULL uniform.

Source: Sun Belt Media Relations

Florida Atlantic's Mark Nelson and Louisiana-Lafayette's Jordan Nicholson has been named the Sun Belt Conference's Baseball Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, the league office announced on Monday. This is the first award for either player this season.

Nelson hit three homeruns and drove in 11 runs in the three-game sweep at FIU, the Co-Preseason SBC favorite. The junior hit two homeruns as part of a career-high six-RBI night in Saturday’s 9-5 win with his first homerun helping start a comeback.

With the Owls trailing 4-1 in the sixth inning, Nelson connected on a two-run homerun to bring the Owls within one run at 4-3. Then, the next inning, he capped a six-run seventh inning with a grand slam to give FAU a 9-4 lead.

On Sunday, he hit a three-run home run to increase FAU’s lead to 7-2. For the week, he hit .389 (7-for-18) with four runs scored, three home runs and 11 RBI. All four of his hits against FIU drove in a run. Nelson also tallied a .944 slugging percentage and reached base 40-percent of his at-bats.

ULL's Nicholson tossed a complete game shutout for the Ragin’ Cajuns in Friday’s SBC opener, outdueling Louisiana-Monroe’s Randy Zeigler in a 5-0 victory. Nicholson averaged a shade above 12 pitches per inning and the middle three frames was the only time the Warhawks managed to get traffic on the base path.

Nicholson retired the first 10 Warhawks he faced, not allowing a hit until one out in the fourth inning. He ended the game by retiring 10 consecutive batters after a two-out single in the sixth inning. The leadoff batter only reached once off of Nicholson and he held the Warhawks to four hits.

Nicholson became the first Cajuns pitcher to toss a nine-inning, complete game shutout in conference play since Zach Osborne fired a one-hit shutout at Troy on April 9, 2010 at “The Tigue”. The performance marked his first complete game shutout in a ULL uniform.

Source: Sun Belt Media Relations

Congrats Mark - way to rip those kitties!