Popkins Earn Weekly Baseball Honors

A pair of sophomores claimed baseball awards as David Popkins of UC Davis hit .625 (15-for-24) over five games for Big West Field Player of the Week, while Cal State Fullerton’s Noe Ramirez threw eight innings of four-hit shutout ball to capture Big West Pitcher of the Week.

Popkins Leads UC Davis To First Series Sweep In 2010
David Popkins (San Diego, Calif./Saint Augustine HS) paced the UC Davis offense in four victories, hitting an impressive .625 (15-for-24) to garner Big West Baseball Field Player of the Week accolades.

Popkins hit 200 points higher than the next Aggie batter as the Aggies recovered from a Tuesday loss at Nevada to win four straight.

The sophomore led the Aggies to their first series sweep of the season, batting .786 (11-for-14) against UC Santa Barbara. In Sunday’s 9-8 win in 10 innings, Popkins went 4-for-4 and blasted a pair of home runs en route to a five-RBI effort. He also drew a bases loaded walk in the 10th inning to collect the game-winning RBI.

Popkins posted another four-hit performance in Saturday’s 11-6 win. He scored twice and drove in the game-tying run in the fifth inning. Early in the week, Popkins recorded triples in back-to-back games against Nevada and Santa Clara. He leads the team in batting average (.387), runs (38), hits (67) and RBI (38).

Others nominated: Luke Yoder (Cal Poly); Corey Jones (Cal State Fullerton); C.J. Belanger (Cal State Northridge); Casey Stevenson (UC Irvine)