After turning in a dominant week at the plate to help Missouri State go 5-0, Jake Burger picked up a pair of honors Monday with his third Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week nod of 2017, as well one of
Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's national player of the week citations.
Burger played a starring role in MSU's best offensive week of the season, hitting .455 (10-for-22) with 13 runs scored and 11 RBIs while clubbing key home runs in three different wins. The Chesterfield, Mo., product belted the Bears' first grand slam of the season while going 2-for-4 with four runs scored and four RBIs in a 15-9 win at Saint Louis on Monday, then blasted a pivotal two-run homer the following night at Mizzou to power a 5-3 Bears win.
The junior third baseman was nearly unstoppable in a three-game sweep of Wichita State over the weekend, scoring three times in Saturday's 12-5 win, before going 6-for-11 with four more runs scored, his 17th home run of the season and five RBIs in a doubleheader sweep of the Shockers on Sunday to help extend MSU's program-record Valley win streak to 13-straight games. The 2016 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner was also flawless in the field last week, handling all 13 defensive chances without a miscue.
Burger currently ranks third nationally in home runs and leads all Valley batters in hitting (.373), slugging (.766), on-base percentage (.474), hits (59), runs scored (53), runs batted-in (48), home runs (17) and total bases (121). The Valley honor marks the sixth weekly MVC Player of the Week nod of his MSU career, as well as the ninth time in 10 weeks this season a Bear has received one of the Valley's two weekly player of the week honors.
