Brown third Wildcat to win Pac-10 Player of the Week


By Michael Schwartz
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Pacific 10 Conference officials should consider renaming their weekly baseball awards the Arizona player of the week awards.

For the third consecutive week, a different Arizona player earned a weekly award from the conference.

Junior first baseman Jordan Brown won the Pac-10 Player of the Week award this week after batting .429 (6-for-14) with a team-high seven RBIs and five runs scored.

Brown also hit his team-leading eighth home run, two doubles and a triple to lead the conference with 40 RBIs.

"He's a stud," said junior catcher Nick Hundley. "Jordan gives us a great chance. He does damage in the middle of our order. Whenever he's on, it helps us out so much, so I'm proud of him, and the way he works, I'm not surprised."

His biggest hit of the weekend came Friday with Arizona trailing 5-3 with the bases loaded, two outs and two strikes in the count after a potential game-winning home run hooked right of the foul pole.

Brown stroked a double down the left-field line against a shift to tie the game.

Arizona eventually won 6-5 in 12 innings on senior right fielder Jeff Van Houten's game-winning home run.

"He's done a marvelous job for us," said head coach Andy Lopez. "He's done a great job in terms of big at-bats. He's been very consistent in the middle part of our lineup. He's more than deserving of it, that's for sure."

Junior pitcher John Meloan (March 22) and sophomore closer Mark Melancon (March 15) won Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week the last two weeks. Junior left fielder Trevor Crowe earned Pac-10 Player of the Week February 22.

Brown's honor is the second in his career and No. 44 in Arizona history.

Wildcats on television

The entire country will get the opportunity to watch Wildcat baseball as five games have been picked up for national and regional broadcasts.

The entire three-game series against Southern California April 29-May 1 at Sancet Stadium will be televised.

The recently launched ESPNU will televise the first contest. Fox Sports Net will pick up the middle game live in Arizona and tape delayed nationally, while ESPN will show the season finale.

The May 16 showdown at rival ASU will be shown locally on Fox Sports Net Arizona, while the May 20 game at Stanford will be seen on College Sports TV.

"That's great for the program," Lopez said. "I'm happy that they're recognizing the efforts of these guys. Now they're going to get some recognition. It's good for them."

All remaining Pac-10 games will also be broadcasted on 1290 AM The Source.

Arizona cracks top 10 in national polls

After winning two of three in the Pac-10 opening series against Washington, Arizona (18-10, 2-1 Pac-10) regained its spot in the top 10 of Baseball America's poll, moving from No. 13 to No. 10.

Arizona had been ranked in the top 10 for all but one week from Feb. 11-March 17 before dropping out last week.

The Collegiate Baseball poll upped the Wildcats from No. 16 to No. 13, while the Sports Weekly/ESPN Top 25 Poll moved Arizona from No. 13 to No. 12.

The Wildcats outranked every Pac-10 team in the Baseball America and Collegiate baseball polls, but No. 11 Stanford holds a higher rank in the Sports Weekly poll.

With a 2-1 conference mark, Arizona trails California (3-0) in the Pac-10 standings.