WACO, Texas – Joel Torres of Bacone College (Okla.) was honored with the Red River Athletic Conference Baseball Player of the Week award for March 24-30, and Steven DeFratus of Texas Wesleyan University was recognized as the RRAC Baseball Pitcher of the Week for the same dates.

Torres, a senior second baseman from Caguas, P.R., powered the Warriors to a 5-1 week with 12 runs scored and 11 RBIs. He was 5-for-6 in a double-header sweep against St. Gregory’s University (Okla.) with a home run and four RBIs. Torres stayed hot in a three-game series with conference foe Southwestern Assemblies of God University (Texas) with nine hits and a 4-for-4 performance at the plate in the final game with three RBIs. For the week, he was 14-of-21 hitting (.667) with three doubles, three home runs and six walks. Torres also was successful on 6-of-7 stolen base attempts. Bacone improved to 3-3 in the RRAC and 31-7 overall.

DeFratus, a senior pitcher from Oxnard, Calif., helped the Rams stay perfect in conference play with a six-hit shutout in his only appearance of the week. In an 8-0 win over Paul Quinn College (Texas), he struck out seven hitters in seven innings of work with no walks allowed. With the win, DeFratus moved to 5-2 on the season and lowered his ERA to 2.97. TWU remains atop the RRAC North Division at 6-0 with an overall record of 23-8.

Raymond Avila of Wiley College (Texas), TWU’s Antoine Cole, and Patrick Hines of Huston-Tillotson University (Texas) were additional player of the week nominees. Jon Ali of the University of Texas at Brownsville, Bacone’s Cesar Arias, and HT’s Chris Tuttle were nominated for this week’s pitcher award.

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