March 19, 2007

After posting as school-record four consecutive shutouts last week, it's not a surprise that a Tulane pitcher has been named the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week. Green Wave junior RHP Sean Morgan takes home that honor for the second time this season, while UCF junior OF Tyson Auer earned the Golden Knights Hitter of the Week for the second week in a row.

Morgan set a career high with 14 strikeouts while allowing just one single in an 8.0 inning start against Siena on Friday. He had at least one strikeout in each of the innings he toed the rubber, including a pair of two-K frames and striking out the side in the fifth and eighth innings. Morgan walked a pair and tossed a wild pitch in a 30-pitch first inning, but bounced back to strand the runners in scoring position with an inning ending strikeout. From there, faced just one more then the minimum the rest of the way. The lone hit came in the second - a seeing-eye single to lead off the frame - and the only other baserunner he allowed after the first was a one-out walk in the eighth.

Auer hit .500 (8-for-16) to help UCF go 3-1 last week. The Golden Knights' leadoff man cranked out three hits against Army and also scored three times. He pounded out three more hits in game one vs. Rutgers, and went on to have at least one hit and one RBI in each game last week. He also stretched his C-USA lead in stolen bases by swiping three to give him 14 on the year. In the four games, Auer had 10 total bases, a .625 slugging percentage, two sacrifice flies and two doubles, all as the leadoff hitter.