Fort Hays State baseball players Mace Krol and Brett Macari were named the MIAA Baseball Student-Athletes of the Week for the week of April 16-22. Krol earned Hitter of the Week and Macari earned Pitcher of the Week honors. Both were instrumental in a midweek victory over Nebraska-Kearney and then the four-game series at Southwest Baptist this past weekend.
Krol, a senior from Nickerson, Kan., led the Tigers in batting average (.526), hits (10), and RBI (10) last week. He started his week with four-RBI against Nebraska-Kearney on Tuesday, delivering a grand slam in the fourth to put FHSU up 8-5 after trailing 5-4. It was Krol’s second consecutive grand slam home run after hitting one against Truman the previous weekend.
In the first game of the series at SBU, Krol’s RBI single in the fourth inning broke a scoreless tie. FHSU went on to win that game 4-1. In the second game on Friday, he had a pair of RBI singles and an RBI double. One of the singles was in the first inning, pushing FHSU to a 2-0 advantage. The double in the third inning pushed the FHSU lead to 3-0. With the game tied in the eighth, Krol delivered his other RBI single with two outs to give FHSU the lead and they went on to win 5-3. In the 6-3 loss, Krol had an RBI single that was part of a two-run fourth inning for the Tigers. In the series finale he had another RBI single, which was part of a five-run seventh for the Tigers in an 11-4 win.
Macari, who ranked second in the MIAA in saves last year with 12, finally had several save opportunities this past week and converted all three, pushing his total to six for the season. He allowed just one hit against the 12 batters he faced. He allowed just one walk and struck out two over that stretch. He closed out a pair of crucial conference wins for the Tigers at Southwest Baptist on Friday and had a two-inning save against Nebraska-Kearney earlier in the week. In the 4-1 win against SBU, Macari entered with FHSU leading 4-1 with runners at first and third and one out. He got the first batter he faced to ground into a double play and end the game. He pitched the entire ninth inning in the 5-3 win.
Macari has not allowed a run over his last 6.2 innings pitched and recorded five of his six saves this year in that stretch since April 7. In that time, he has seen his ERA drop from 2.70 to 1.80.
– FHSU Sports Information –