UCSB’s Joey Epperson
Senior third baseman Joey Epperson was voted the Big West Field Player of the Week after leading UC Santa Barbara to a perfect 4-0 week by hitting .588 and collecting multiple hits in each game, the conference announced this morning.
For the week, the leadoff man scored eight runs, was 5-5 in stolen base attempts, and drove in four runs.
Epperson was a key figure in Tuesday’s upset of No. 19 UCLA, going 3-5 and stealing two bases in the 6-4 win.
He then went on to abuse Princeton’s pitching staff this weekend, hitting .583 in the three-game series. In the opener, he launched a two-run home run as part of a 2-5 day. In Sunday’s doubleheader, he went 3-3 and scored three times in the opener before adding another two hits and scoring twice in the nightcap.
For the season, the Lafayette, Calif. native currently leads all UCSB regulars with a .500 batting average, two home runs, and a .781 slugging percentge.
This is the second career Player of the Week honor for Epperson. He previously picked up the award on May 6, 2013 after going 8-14 and hitting a series-clinching walk-off home run against nationally-ranked UC Irvine.
Joey and the rest of the Gauchos have another challenging week scheduled, as they will take on Waseda University, one of Japan’s most historically successful college programs, in a Tuesday exhibition before heading to Tucson this weekend for a three-team, four-game tournament featuring the University of Arizona and Mississippi State.
