Western Illinois baseball player Preston Church (Ogden, Iowa/Ogden) has been named Papa John's Scholar-Athlete of the Week Monday (March 9) for his performance on the field this past week, and continued success in the classroom.
In the fourth game of Western's series split with Evansville this past weekend, the Ogden, Iowa native pitched a career-high eight scoreless innings and struck out eight Purple Ace hitters, also a career high. The performance earned the sophomore his first win of the season and second of his career.
Through 10 games and three starts this season, Church leads the teams in strikeouts, innings pitched, and ranks second with a 3.50 earned run average. He also has held opponents to a .197 batting average which is tops on the team.
In addition to his performance on the field Church maintains a 3.087 GPA as a pre-business major.
