Stratton Tabbed NCBWA National Pitcher Of The Week
The junior right-hander from Tupelo, Miss., has been honored by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association as the NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week. Earlier this week he was tabbed by Collegiate Baseball as a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week, by the Southeastern Conference as the SEC Pitcher of the Week and by SEBaseball.com as co-SEC Pitcher of the Week.
In his first start of the campaign Stratton registered a career-best and SEC season-high 17 strikeouts over 8.2 innings on SEC opening night in Baton Rouge, La., against No. 10 LSU. Stratton held LSU to a run on four hits and a .138 batting average with two walks before leaving the game in the ninth inning. It was the highest strikeout total by a Bulldog pitcher since 1992.
Stratton (4-0, 2.12), leads Southeastern Conference pitchers with 44 strikeouts and the Mississippi State pitching staff with 29.2 innings pitched. He earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors in 2010 after tossing seven innings of three-hit, seven-strikeout ball in a season-ending win at LSU.
Mississippi State, scheduled to host Alabama A&M Wednesday night, opens its 2012 SEC home schedule this weekend, challenging No. 3 Arkansas (19-2, 3-0 SEC) at Dudy Noble Field in a three-game series. Game times are set for 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 12 p.m. Sunday.