BEREA, Ohio -- Three Baldwin Wallace University spring student-athletes, baseball relief pitcher Brandon Cichocki (Walled Lake, Mich./ Central) and track standouts Kevin Johnson (Maple Heights/ St. Ignatius) and Maggie Urban (Cleveland/ St. Joseph Academy), have been named as Ohio Athletic Conference Players-of-the-Week. The trio earn their honors for their efforts during the Week of April 14-21.
Cichocki earned a victory and a save in two key relief appearances as he helped the Yellow Jackets improve to 19-12 overall and 8-6 in the OAC. He also did not allow a run in either outing. Cichocki entered the game in the sixth inning at Ohio Northern University last Thursday (April 17) and tossed two and two-third innings of scoreless relief as BW came back to beat the Polar Bears, 5-4, in the second game of an OAC doubleheader in Ada. He allowed two hits, no runs and struck out four. Against the University of Mount Union, he came into the opener of a twin bill in the sixth with BW holding a 4-3 advantage. Cichocki earned his team-leading fifth save of the season by again going two and two-third innings of scoreless relief. He allowed just one hit, struck out four and walked one.
For the season, Cichocki has made a team-leading 14 appearances and has a 2-1 record with five saves and a 2.79 earned run average in 19 and one-third innings pitched. He has allowed 12 base hits, struck out 20 opposing hitters and walked just four.
BW is back in action on Thursday, April 24 when they travel to Cleveland to play 18th-ranked Case Western Reserve University (23-7 overall) at 4 p.m. BW defeated CWRU, 6-1, earlier this season when it was ranked 21st nationally. The Yellow Jackets also travel to New Concord this Saturday, April 26 to play Muskingum University in an OAC twinbill at 1 p.m.
Johnson and Urban earned their honors for their excellence at last Saturday’s annual BW Paul “Sparky” Adams Invitational Meet at The George Finnie Stadium.
Johnson earned his third overall OAC Player of the Week award. He earned his previous two weekly accolades in football. Johnson won the 100-meter dash and ran on the winning 4x100-meter relay team at the “Sparky” Adams Meet. Johnson, who is ranked third in Division III in the 100 meters (1.53 seconds), was timed in 10.77 seconds. He was joined by sophomore Ben Beidelman (Washington, D.C.) and freshmen Troy Robinson (Akron/Garfield) and Otis Conel (Ashtabula/Lakeside), also ranked third in Division III (41.27 seconds), won in 42.18 seconds. Johnson, who earned Division III All-America honors this winter when he finished eighth in the 60-meter dash at the NCAA Division III national meet, also is ranked third in Division III in the 200 meters in 21.25 seconds.
Urban won her first OAC Player of the Week award. She broke her own school record in the hammer throw with a toss of 172-feet and two inches at the “Sparky” Adams Meet. She is currently ranked ninth in Division III. Two weeks ago, she set the school-record and bested sophomore All-American teammate Kim Gallavan’s (Auburn Township/Kenston) record set earlier this spring.
The Yellow Jacket track teams are back in action this Friday and Saturday, April 25-26 when they host the OAC Championships at Finnie Stadium. Action begins at 12:00 noon on Friday and 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.
FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bwyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.