RICHMOND, Va. – Elon University baseball raked in the weekly honors on Tuesday, April 13 as the CAA selected
Alex Iadisernia Co-Player of the Week,
Brian Edgington the league's Pitcher of the Week and
Justin Cassella Rookie of the Week. It marks the second weekly honor of the season for Edgington, who was tabbed
Co-Pitcher of the Week on March 30. The honors mark career firsts for Iadisernia and Cassella. Elon's other weekly honor this year came on March 2 when
Anthony Galason was named
Player of the Week.
A redshirt freshman out of Jackson, N.J., Iadisernia posted a .389 (7-18) average with three home runs, one double, five runs, 12 RBIs, a walk and a stolen base through four games. He recorded at least two hits and three RBIs in three of the four games and was responsible for a pair of decisive runs in wins over High Point and William & Mary. Last Tuesday against the Panthers, he homered twice in a 2-for-4 day at the plate. Iadisernia scored three times, drove in four runs and drew a walk. Down 7-6 in the middle of the eighth, he beat out a throw to first to reach on a fielder's choice. Two runs came home on the play as Elon secured the 8-7 comeback victory. On Saturday versus the Tribe, he hit a three-run blast, scored twice, and drove in five runs in Game One of the doubleheader. He then turned in a 1-for-5 outing in Game Two as he doubled and drove in three runs. With two outs and Elon trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the eighth, Iadisernia smacked a 3-1 pitch to the gap in right to plate a pair of the runners as the Phoenix rallied for the 7-6 win. This season, he leads the Phoenix with 12 multi-hit games and 6 multi-RBI games. He also extended his hit streak to 10 games.
Edgington tossed a three-hit, complete game shutout in Sunday's 8-0 win over W&M. The redshirt sophomore struck out 12 and did not walk anyone to complete the series sweep. He faced four batters over the minimum and retired 18 of the last 20 Tribe batters. The outing lowered his season ERA from a 3.60 to a 2.77 and he now leads the team and is tied for second in the CAA with 44 strikeouts. The Hatboro, Pa. native posted a 69.6 strike percentage with 78-of-112 pitches for strikes and he improved to 1-2 this season with the win. His performance was listed as the top outing in the country from Sunday by
D1 Baseball.
Cassella had a breakout week as the Bernardsville, N.J. product hit 12-for-19 (.632) with a 1.105 slugging percentage and a .650 on-base percentage through the four games. He added two long balls, three doubles, nine runs, six RBIs, one base on balls and two stolen bases to his weekly totals. The true freshman also had multi-hit outings in every game. On Tuesday against HPU, he finished 2-for-4 as he doubled, scored twice and walked once. In Game One of Saturday's doubleheader, Cassella hit 3-for-5 with a three-run blast, two runs, five RBIs and a swiped bag. He then bettered that effort in Game Two as he went 4-for-5 with a solo home run, a double, three runs and an RBI. He closed out the series with a 3-for-5 performance on Sunday as he scored twice, doubled and stole a base. Cassella entered the week with a .091 average (1-for-11) and raised it to a .433 clip.
Elon will travel to Williamsburg, Va. this weekend for a conference series at William & Mary. The Phoenix and Tribe will play a doubleheader starting at noon on Saturday before wrapping up the conference tilt with a 1 p.m. finale on Sunday.
– ELON –
