Oklahoma State’s Ryan Sluder and Michael Freeman, along with Texas Tech’s Quinn Carpenter have been named Big 12 baseball weekly award recipients for games played March 24-29.

Freeman repeats as the league’s Pitcher of the Week, earning the award for the third time this season. He is one of 15 pitchers to garner the accolade three or more times in the same season in conference history and the only OSU hurler to win the award on three occasions or more in the same year. Freeman becomes the 10th pitcher in league history to win the award in consecutive weeks, joining Matt Smith (1998) as the only other Cowboy to accomplish the feat.

Sluder is the Big 12 Player of the Week, while Carpenter is the Newcomer of the Week.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Ryan Sluder, Oklahoma State, So., OF, Amarillo, Texas/Amarillo HS
Sluder helped carry 12th-ranked Oklahoma State to a 3-1 week as the sophomore outfielder led the Big 12 in hitting with a .667 batting average, going 8-for-12 at the plate with a pair of doubles and a home run. An Amarillo, Texas native, Sluder hit safely in all four games to extend his career-long hitting streak to 11 games. He scored three runs, collected three RBI, a walk and a stolen base and turned in a slugging percentage of 1.083.

In the series win over Kansas State, he was 7-for-9 (.778) at the plate to go along with a 1.222 slugging percentage. He tallied 11 total bases with a double, home run and three RBI. Saturday’s win over the Wildcats saw Sluder go 4-for-4 at the plate, with the four hits setting a career high. He also recorded his first-career home run, a two-run blast. In Sunday’s series-clinching finale, his RBI single in the seventh inning proved to be the game winner as it broke a 1-1 tie in a game OSU won 4-1. Sluder’s hot week saw him raise his season batting average 77 points from .241 to .318.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Michael Freeman, Oklahoma State, Sr., LHP, Broken Arrow, Okla./Eastern Oklahoma State
Freeman continued his dominance on the mound as he recorded a complete-game win in Sunday’s series-clinching 4-1 win over Kansas State, a victory that gave Oklahoma State its program-record ninth consecutive Big 12 Conference series win. A senior southpaw, Freeman went 8.1 innings without allowing a hit before surrendering a pair of singles in the ninth. He issued only one walk, and the one run he allowed was unearned as the result of an error and a passed ball.

Freeman opened the game by hitting the leadoff batter but then retired 15-straight Wildcats, 12 of those via ground balls and three by strikeout. In the ninth, K-State’s only two hits in the game brought the tying run to the plate, but Freeman recorded his sixth strikeout of the day to end it. Freeman threw 122 pitches in the contest, 84 of those for strikes. Freeman recorded 20 ground ball outs, six strikeouts and one fly out as he improved to 5-0 on the season and lowered his ERA to 1.32. With his effort, Freeman became the first Cowboy pitcher since All-American Andrew Heaney in 2012 to toss back-to-back complete games.

NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK
Quinn Carpenter, Texas Tech, Jr., OF, Goshen, N.Y./Iowa Western CC
Carpenter led Tech to its series win over Kansas batting .556 (5-for-9) with a double, triple, three RBI, .636 on-base percentage and .889 slugging percentage. He started the KU series going 3-for-4 with a run, triple and two RBI as the only Red Raider with a multi-hit game. On Saturday, he led Tech to its first of two wins in the series going 2-for-2 with a double, RBI and two hit-by-pitch in game two of the series. He reached base safely in six consecutive plate appearances and in seven of his first eight plate appearances in the series. He is batting .391 with 11 runs, four doubles, a triple, home run and 11 RBI this season with a .463 on-base percentage and .587 slugging percentage.

PHILLIPS 66 BIG 12 BASEBALL WEEKLY AWARDS