Two Baldwin Wallace University Spring Student-Athletes Named OAC Players-of-the-Week
BEREA, OHIO -- Two Baldwin Wallace University spring sport student-athletes have been named as Ohio Athletic Conference players-of-the-week for April 23. They are junior men’s tennis player James Daly (Akron/ Firestone) and freshman baseball pitcher Jim Palko (Euclid).
Daly, the men’s No.1 singles and a No.1 doubles player, won all three of his singles matches and combined with two separate doubles partners to win three times last week to earn the OAC Player of the Week accolades for the sixth time in his career and for the third time in the last five weeks.
In singles, Daly improved to a school single-season-record 24-2 overall this season and is 75-7 in his career. He is five wins away from the BW career singles victory mark of 79. Daly currently is 20-1 in dual matches, including a 9-0 slate in the OAC and has won 12 straight singles matches. He has been beaten just once in his career by an OAC opponent (31-1) and is ranked 17th in the Central Region in the latest ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) rankings (www.itatennis.com).
In doubles play, Daly and sophomore Jim Kucera (Mentor) are 15-1 at No.1 doubles and have won their last 15 matches in a row, including last Saturday against OAC foe Wilmington College in Kucera’s first match back since recovering from an injury. Daly and freshman Zach Apperson (Zanesville/ Rosecrans), who replaced Kucera in the lineup while injured, had a 5-1 mark. For his career in doubles, Daly is 64-10 in doubles and has a career combination mark of 139-17.
Tomorrow (Tuesday, April 24), Daly will lead the third-seeded Yellow Jackets, 19-2 overall, in an OAC Tournament first round/ quarterfinal match against Heidelberg College at the "Pop" Collins Courts at 3:30 p.m. The winner of that match advances to the OAC Final Four this Friday and Saturday, April 27-28 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason.
Palko, who will start this Wednesday in a home doubleheader against OAC co-leader Heidelberg College, pitched well last week to earn his first-ever OAC accolade and helped the Yellow Jackets win one game with a shutout and pitched well in another victory.
Palko pitched nine innings last week, allowed three base hits and no runs, struck out five opposing batters and walked three. He tossed a seven-inning, complete-game two-hit shutout in a 9-0 win at Mount Union College on April 18. It was his first career victory and he struck out three Purple Raiders and walked one. Then Palko tossed a pair of scoreless innings (the eighth and nineth) in an 8-7 win in 12 innings against Wilmington on Saturday in Berea.
For the season, Palko is 1-0 in six appearances and has a team-leading 1.93 earned run average in 18 and two-third innings pitched. He has allowed 17 base hits, seven runs (four earned), struck out 10 and walked 10.
Following its game against Heidelberg on Wednesday, BW will play a single game on Seniors’ Day on Thursday, April 26 versus Oberlin College at 4:00 p.m. at Heritage Field in Berea. Then on Saturday, BW travels to Ada to play Ohio Northern University in an OAC twinbill at 1:00 p.m.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, please contact BW Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327, by FAX machine at 440-826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu.