Swisher Named Big Ten Baseball Offensive Player of the Week – Again – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/9/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 9, 2000
COLUMBUS, Ohio – For the second-consecutive week, Ohio State baseball player Nick Swisher (Fr., Parkersburg, W.Va.) has been named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. He is the first player to win back-to-back honors this season.
With his impressive clutch hitting, Swisher helped guide OSU to a 4-1 record for the week, including a 3-1 series win that knocked Penn State out of first place in the Big Ten. For the week, he reached base in every game and batted .333 (6-for-18) with nine runs batted in. In game one of the PSU series, he hit a key triple that helped propel OSU to an 8-5 win. In game two, with OSU down, 1-0, in the top of the fourth inning, Swisher belted a two-run double to give OSU a 2-1 lead. The very next inning, he put OSU ahead for good with his second grand slam in two weeks. OSU won the game, 9-3. In the series finale, Swisher drove in three runs, including the game-winning RBI on a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning.
“Nick has been playing well as of late,” head coach Bob Todd said. “He has started to settle down and has done a better job playing within himself. Hopefully he’ll be able to raise his level of play even higher as we head into the most important part of our season.”
This season, Swisher has established himself as a bona fide Big Ten Freshman of the Year candidate. The sweet-swinging first baseman enters this week with nine home runs and 43 runs batted in. His home run and RBI totals are the most by an OSU true freshman since Matt Middleton blasted nine home runs and drove in 39 RBI in 1996. In 1995, Dan Seimetz set the OSU freshman records with 10 home runs and 58 RBI.
