LEXINGTON ? In what is becoming a weekly ritual, another Kentucky player was named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week as Antone DeJesus grabbed the honor for the first time in his career, it was announced by the league office on Monday.
It is the second straight week and the third time in four weeks that a Wildcat has earned the honor. Sean Coughlin was the first to turn the trick on March 6 and Ryan Strieby did on March 20. It is the fifth time in the last two years a UK player has been a Player of the Week after an eight-year drought.
No team has had three different players be named Player of the Week in a four week span since the SEC instituted the award in 1985. It has been 15 years since a team has won Player of the Week honors three times in four weeks. Alabama did so that season when Philip Doyle won the award and Mick Kerns won it twice.
DeJesus had a monster week to lead Kentucky to a 3-1 record and a series victory over 12th-ranked Tennessee. Against the Vols, he had five extra-base hits and scored six of the team?s 16 runs. During the week, he went 2-for-2 with a pair of singles, two walks and four runs scored against Xavier.
On Friday and Saturday, DeJesus led off the game with a double and came around to score both times to make it 1-0. In Friday?s loss, he went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and was stranded on base in as the tying run in the ninth.
Saturday, DeJesus cooled off, hitting only a double and scoring twice. He had Kentucky?s lone run in the first eight innings of a 1-1 game. He also scored in the five-run ninth.
In the series finale on Sunday, DeJesus doubled and tripled while scoring another run. He also stole a base in the game to bring his weekend total to three.
As the leadoff man in the order, he posted a .667 on-base percentage and a 1.071 slugging percentage.
Kentucky Breaks Into Top 20: After winning its second consecutive SEC series over No. 12 Tennessee, the UK baseball team moved up to No. 20 in the nation, according to Baseball America.
It is the first time since March 2000 that Baseball America has ranked the Wildcats. Last week, UK broke into the rankings for the first time this year, doing so in the Collegiate Baseball poll at No. 26. Kentucky moved up five spots to 21st in that poll this week.
The Wildcats are off to a 20-5 start and are 4-2 in the SEC. It is the best conference start for the team since 1996. The hot start and national rankings are put on the line this weekend when UK travels to Auburn for its second straight road series.
