BENNINGTON, Vt. — A well-deserved pair of honors, Southern Vermont College freshman center fielder Zack Stacey (Saratoga, N.Y.) was named to the D3baseball.com Team of the Week before collecting the Corvias Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III New England Rookie of the Week award, both for the period ending May 1, 2016 as announced by the two organizations on Tuesday.
Stacey had a monster week for Southern Vermont, helping the Mountaineers reach 20 wins for the first time in history as they broke their all-time victory record during the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) playoffs over the weekend. In his five games on the week, the rookie went 13-for-22, hitting .591 while slugging 1.273. In SVC's four playoff contests, Stacey was 12-for-19 (.632) at the plate with four home runs, two doubles, nine runs scored, and 11 runs driven in to be named to the NECC All-Tournament Team.
"Zack's play this week was one of the more outstanding weekends I have seen in college baseball," noted SVC head coach Dave Gage. "To do it in the conference championship made it that much better. He truly earned these honors."
Stacey tagged two homers, the first two of his collegiate career, in a must-win elimination game against Elms College on Saturday before adding another pair in the championship game on Sunday. Stacey had another RBI and two runs scored earlier in the week in the team's regular season finale. He also stole three bases and was perfect through 11 defensive chances in center while working three walks for a .654 on-base percentage.
"I didn't get much sleep this weekend, if that helped. I drank some chocolate milk this morning?" Stacey joked on Sunday when asked about his play through the tournament. "I guess I just didn't try too hard; just relaxed, let it go, and hit it on the barrel. That's pretty much all you have to do. I think I was seeing the ball better, maybe because I wanted [the championship] so badly."
The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com's weekly honor roll, in its fifth season of recognizing the top performers at each of nine positions from the previous week. Players are selected from nominations from their school's sports information directors. This is the 12th Team of the Week of the 2016 season.
Stacey is not only the second-ever SVC player to be named to the Team of the Week in program history, but the second Mountaineer to be selected for the accolade this season. Junior right-handed pitcher Dylan Angelo (Ft. Johnson, N.Y.) picked up the national honor back on February 23 for the second week of the award. To see the full team selected this week, visit: http://www.d3baseball.com/awards/team-of-the-week/2016/week12.
Stacey joins classmate Joe Braim (Schuylerville, N.Y.) in taking home ECAC Rookie laurel this season after Braim was named the top first-year player in New England on April 5.
"These are another two accolades that the entire team has earned," Gage added. "Players are constantly pushing each other to get better which has led for our culture to earn these awards this year. Thank you to D3baseball.com and the ECAC for realizing our players' abilities."