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 Western Carolina senior Donovan Minero was named Southern Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season. |
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May 7, 2002
Asheville, N.C. - The Southern Conference today named Western Carolina senior Donovan Minero as its Player of the Week, marking the third time this season and the fourth time in his career he has earned the honor.
Minero, a native of San Jose, Calif., had an impressive week. He collected two doubles and three RBIs in the first game of the VMI series on May 4. The All-American centerfielder followed that up with three hits and an RBI in game two and then had two hits, two RBIs, a double and a homer in the series finale. For the week, Minero batted .583 (7-for-12) with six RBIs, three doubles and a home run.
In addition to his play on the field this week, Minero was also named Western Carolina University Male Athlete of the Year on Thursday and won the Charlie Justice Award on Sunday at the 44th Annual Western North Carolina Sports Award Banquet, given by the Mountain Amateur Athletic Club to the top male collegiate athlete competing in the region from outside Western North Carolina.
Minero leads the SoCon with 15 home runs on the season. His 32 homers in his two-year career, after transferring from San Jose State, puts him 10th on the WCU all-time list. He additionally leads the league in hits (74), total bases (136) and slugging percentage (.743), while ranking second in batting (.404), second in RBIs (60), second in doubles (17) and ninth in on base percentage (.459). Minero ranks 24th nationally in RBIs with an average of 1.30 per game. He just missed the national top 50 in batting (his average is .404 and the final spot on the rankings was a .405 average) and the national top 30 for home runs (his average is 0.33 home runs per game and the final spot on the rankings was 0.34).
As a team, Western Carolina leads the SoCon and ranks fifth nationally with a .340 batting average, while ranking 29th nationally in scoring (8.1 runs per game).
Other Catamounts to earn Southern Conference weekly honors this season include Ryan Schade (Player, Feb. 18), Jared Burton (Pitcher, Mar. 13) and Todd Roper (Player, Mar. 26). Minero was also tabbed SoCon Player of the Week honors this year came on Mar. 19 and April 3.
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