University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols in professional baseball update
June 09, 2008 | Baseball
Last week???s MLB highlights from former Tennessee players in professional baseball include more honors for a rookie catcher and the first career start in a historic stadium for one Vol. Below are the best performances from former Vols during last week???s action.
?????J.P. Arencibia (2005-07) was named the Toronto Blue Jays??? organizational player of the month by the Blue Jays??? development department. Arencibia finished the month of May with a .350 batting average and is batting .307 for the season. He also ranks among the top six on the Florida State League batting leaders list. Arencibia was named FSL Player of the Week for two consecutive weeks. He has also proved to be a clutch hitter, batting .329 during the month of May with runners in scoring position, accounting for 31 of his 56 RBI. A highlight of the past week include a 2-for-4 performance with a double, run scored and three RBI in a 15-6 Dunedin Blue Jays victory over the Jupiter Hammerheads on Thursday.
?????Luke Hochevar (2003-05) will make his first career start at Yankee Stadium on Monday afternoon. Hochevar enters the game with a 3-5 record and a 5.13 ERA. This will mark his second appearance against the New York Yankees, the first coming in relief last season. Hochevar threw three scoreless innings. In his last start, he worked 5 2/3 innings on Wednesday night against the Chicago White Sox???s. He gave up four runs in what would be a 6-4 loss but the Royals scored just two runs while Hochevar was in the game. As of Sunday, he had the worst run support in the Majors, an average of 2.05 runs per nine innings among pitchers with at least nine starts.
?????Todd Helton (1993-95) has begun to regain his All-Star form after a slow start that saw him hitting only .271 as of May 24. Helton had hit safely in 12 straight games before going 0-for-3 with a walk on Saturday. His average has improved to .291 going into Sunday. His best performance of the week was going 3-for-4 with a run scored in the Rockies 8-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday.
?????R.A. Dickey (1994-96) has a 0-1 record with a 2.88 ERA in seven games for the Seattle Marines this season. In his last two relief appearances he allowed only one earned run. On Tuesday, he pitched 5 and 2/3 innings in relief of starter Erik Bedard. Dickey gave up three hits, zero runs and one walk while striking out six. The Mariners lost the game 5-4 to the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim. On Saturday, he pitched 2 and 2/3 innings in relief, giving up one run on one hit while walking no one and striking out two. The Marines also lost that game 11-3 to the Boston Red Sox???s.
?????Eli Iorg (2004-05) went 1-for-3 with a run scored, an RBI and his seventh home run of the season on Monday in a 5-3 loss to the Springfield Cardinals. In 56 games for the Corpus Christi Hooks this season, Iorg is batting .242 with 51 hits, 11 doubles and 25 RBI.
