Teams: Baseball: Press Releases

Monday, April 13, 2009

LERESCHE EARNS 2009 BASEBALL TEAM'S FIRST PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONOR

MEDFORD -- Sophomore shortstop David Leresche (St. Louis, MO) has been the Tufts University baseball team's most consistent hitter all season, and he enjoyed his best week so far in five games last week. After hitting .643 with a .762 on-base percentage, Leresche has been named New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Player of the Week.

Leresche was a key contributor in all five games, in which four were won by the Jumbos. In a 4-1 victory at Brandeis University to start the week on Tuesday, he was 2 for 3 with a walk, a sacrifice bunt, a run scored and a stolen base. He also handled eight chances in the field perfectly.

In a double-header at home against Middlebury on Friday, Leresche was a constant thorn in Panther pitchers' sides. He reached base eight times in nine appearances on the day, driving in five runs and scoring twice on four hits, one walk and three hit-by-pitches, stealing three bases in the process. The Jumbos won the games 6-4 and 9-4. He was the Tufts leader in their lone loss of the week in game one of a pair at Middlebury on Saturday. He had three hits in four at-bats, including two doubles, with four RBI, three runs scored and a stolen base. Leresche was relatively quiet in game two, still reaching base twice on a walk and a hit-by-pitch and scoring a run.

All of that offense totaled up to nine hits in 14 at-bats with seven runs scored and nine RBI. He walked three times, was hit by pitches four times, slugged .786 and stole five bases. He fielded 24 of 26 chances in the field.

One of two Jumbos to appear in all 23 games (including 22 starts), Leresche leads Tufts in batting average (.375), slugging (.569), on-base percentage (.511), hits (27), RBI (20), doubles (8), total bases (41), hit by pitches (12) and stolen bases (6).

Leresche is the first Jumbo hitter to earn conference Player of the Week honors since April 2007.

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