It was a good week to be a Central College right fielder as the baseball team’s Colton DeRocher and the softball team’s Franie Burnett were named the American Rivers Conference’s Male and Female Athlete of the Week, and position players of the week respectively. Baseball relief pitcher Wes Hamor also brought home the league’s pitcher of the week honor.

DeRocher posted a .677 batting average in the final five games of Central’s trip to Florida, including a monstrous 5-for-5 game with five RBIs against Bowdoin College (Maine). His single in the seventh inning against SUNY – Poly gave the Dutch a walk-off win to end their Florida trip. DeRocher drove in a total of 11 runs on 10 hits and scored six times. Burnett recorded a .760 batting average in the final eight games of Central’s trip to Florida, recording at least two hits in each contest. She tied a school record with five stolen bases in an 8-4 win against Brockport State (N.Y.). She crossed the plate 13 times during the course of an eight-game stretch where the Dutch went 7-1. In his first two appearances for Central, Hamor notched a save and a win. He struck out six of nine batters faced in a three-inning save against Knox College (Ill.), and then got the win after two scoreless frames against SUNY – Poly in a Dutch 6-5 walk-off win.

DeRocher was Central’s first player of the week since 2018 and Hamor was the program’s first pitcher of the week since 2015.

The Dutch baseball team hosts Buena Vista University in a three-game series this Friday and Saturday. The softball team returns to the diamond to host Bethel University (Minn.) in doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday.