MOUNT PLEASANT – Iowa Wesleyan College baseball player Edder Morales (Sr.-Barquisimeto, Venezuela) and softball player Leigha Strong (Jr.-Muscatine, Iowa) have been honored with weekly awards from the Midwest Collegiate Conference as announced Monday by the league.
Morales was named the MCC Baseball Player of the Week, winning the conference’s award for position players for the second week in a row. Strong was named MCC Softball Player of the Week, winning the award for the first time in her career.
Morales continued a huge season when last week he led the Tiger baseball team to a series sweep of MCC rival Grand View University. He had eight hits in 13 at bats (.615 batting average) and hit six home runs over the three games while driving in 12 runs. He also finished with eight runs scored, and posted one of the biggest days ever for a Tiger baseball player with four home runs and eight RBIs in a 16-10 win over the Vikings Thursday in the second game of a doubleheader.
Morales saw his average continue to climb through the Grand View series, and he is now hitting .478 this year with 55 hits in 115 at bats. He leads the MCC in hits as well as in home runs (13) and RBIs (42). Morales is also among the national leaders in the NAIA in hits, batting average, home runs and RBIs, and has led IWC to first place in the MCC early in the season with a 9-2 conference mark (17-15 overall).
Strong hit .524 with 11 hits in 21 at bats and helped the IWC softball team win five of six games played last week. The junior transfer from Muscatine Community College had a double, two triples and two home runs with eight RBIs and eight runs scored last week. She had five multi-hit games and helped the Tigers to a doubleheader sweep of Grand View with a home run and five RBIs on Wednesday against the Vikings.
Through Wesleyan’s first 28 games, Strong is hitting .436 with 41 hits, 30 runs scored, 12 doubles, four triples, six home runs and 23 RBIs. She leads the MCC in triples and ranks among the conference leaders in a variety of categories, and also paces the Tigers in batting average, hits, runs, home runs and RBIs. IWC is currently 13-15 this season and at 5-3 in conference play was tied with Waldorf College for second in the MCC standings heading into a doubleheader against the Warriors on Monday.
For more information regarding the IWC baseball or softball programs or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site at www.iwc.edu/athletics.
