| Junior Kris Ruepke earned SLC Co-Pitcher of the Week honors on Monday. |
FRISCO ? Junior left-hander Kris Ruepke was named Southland Conference Co-Pitcher of the Week, the league office announced on Monday. He shared the award with UT Arlington's Marc Picca.
Ruepke fired a three-hit shutout on Sunday with a career-high eight strikeouts, as UTSA finished its second SLC sweep in as many weeks with a 7-0 victory against Stephen F. Austin. Ruepke, who improved to 4-2 on the year, was outstanding for the second Sunday in a row, as he did not allow a runner to reach second base in the 119-pitch masterpiece. The Adel, Iowa, native registered 18 first-pitch strikes, faced just five hitters over the minimum and six of his eight punchouts were looking. He finished strong, retiring nine of the final 10 Lumberjacks and 16 of 18 overall.
Ruepke, who has won four of his last five decisions, is the second Roadrunner in the last month to throw consecutive complete games (senior Bradley Chovanec did so on March 29 and April 5). He has allowed just a pair of runs on nine hits and fanned 10 in his last two starts.
Ruepke is the fourth Roadrunner to earn an SLC weekly honor this season. Junior center fielder Michael Rockett was named Hitter of the Week on March 3 and senior first baseman Trent Lockwood shared that same honor on March 31 and April 14.
UTSA, off to its best 40-game start in school history (28-12), is back in action on Wednesday when it travels to Austin to play No. 15 Texas (23-16).