CSUEB baseball's Charlie Sharrer named 'National Player of Week'
Pioneers' slugger Charlie Sharrer prepares to hit a fastball in a recent game. (Photo: Kelley Cox/KLC Photos)
- March 28, 2013
Just hours before the 25th-ranked Pioneers were to take on UC San Diego in their first night game and first true road series of the 2013 season, Cal State East Bay senior Charlie Sharrer completed an unprecedented sweep of the weekly NCAA Division II awards. On March 28 Sharrer was selected as the National Player of the Week for games played March 18-24 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA).
This is the first time a Pioneer baseball player as won a national player of the week award in the history of the program. Sharrer was selected from a group of eight regional nominees after winning both the California Collegiate Athletic Association and NCAA Division II West Region honors a few days earlier. The senior had nine hits in 13 at bats (.692 average) in a three-game sweep of Holy Names University the previous weekend. He capped it off with a 7-for-8 performance in the Saturday doubleheader, launching two home runs and three doubles. The Palmdale, Calif. native finished the series with a 1.385 slugging percentage and 18 total bases.
Sharrer is batting .367 on the season and leads the Pioneers in slugging (.633) and home runs (3). In his fourth season, he has crept into the top 10 on the all-time CSUEB career rankings for hits, RBI, doubles, and homers. A two-way player, Sharrer also paces the East Bay squad with 10 appearances on the mound and four saves, posting a 1.59 ERA.
This weekend, CSUEB (22-8, 12-8 CCAA) visits La Jolla for a crucial four-game series against the defending CCAA champion UC San Diego Tritons (15-12, 10-10 CCAA). Sharrer and the Pioneers open the series Thursday evening facing UCSD senior ace Ryan Goodbrand, the only other CCAA player besides Sharrer to win a national weekly award this year. Goodbrand was the National Pitcher of the Week for Feb. 11-17. CSUEB is the No. 4 team in the West Region, according to the NCBWA; that's highest ranking the team has ever reached in that poll.