Ver Steeg Earns MIAC Weekly Award
MOORHEAD, Minn. (3/13/17)--- Freshman Austin Ver Steeg reaped the benefit of pitching a complete-game shutout against an NCAA Division II team as he was named the MIAC Pitcher of the Week.
Ver Steeg becomes the second freshman hurler in as many years to win the conference weekly award. Last year Fletcher Andel won the award in the first week of the season.
Ver Steeg was on top of his game in the second contest of the Cobbers' doubleheader against DII Concordia-St. Paul – a team who had split a doubleheader with No.17-ranked St. Cloud State earlier in the year.
Ver Steeg went the distance in the seven-inning game and only allowed three hits and struck out four.
Ver Steeg Ver Steeg allowed runners to get into scoring position on only three occasions. Each time that Concordia-St. Paul advanced a runner to second base there were two outs in the inning and each time Ver Steeg was able to get the retire next batter. He held the Golden Bears to 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and 1-for-7 with runners on base.
Ver Steeg is currently third in the MIAC in ERA among pitchers who have at least two starts and 10.0 innings of work.
Ver Steeg leads the Cobbers in overall ERA and opponent's batting average and is tied for the lead in wins. He lowered his ERA to 1.29 on Saturday and opponents are hitting only .212 against him. He is now 2-1 on the year and has a WHIP (walks + hits divided by innings pitched) of 1.00. Last year only four MLB pitchers had a WHIP of less than 1.00.