IRVING, Texas (KUAthletics.com) – Sophomore infielder Brady Ballinger was named Big 12 Player of the Week, the conference office announced on Monday. The Big 12 weekly honor is the first of his career.
Ballinger hit .444/.524/1.056 (8-for-18), with two doubles, three home runs, six RBIs, eight runs scored, three walks and a 1.580 OPS in four games last week. He had his second multi-homer game of the season on Friday at UCF.
Five of Ballinger’s eight hits were extra-base hits and that included three home runs over the weekend at UCF. Ballinger scored multiple runs in three of the four games and also drove in at least one RBI in three contests.
The Las Vegas, Nevada, native currently has a 13-game hitting streak and is ranked nationally in multiple statistical categories. Ballinger is first in the conference in walks (39, second nationally), runs scored (46, tied for seventh nationally), total bases (99, tied for 13th nationally), slugging percentage (.792, 18th nationally) and hits (51, tied for 22nd nationally). He is also seventh in the country with a .562 on-base percentage.
Ballinger is the 23rd player in Kansas history to win Big 12 Player of the Week. He joins Tommy Barth, Jackson Hauge, Michael Brooks and Dominic Voegele as a recipient of a Big 12 weekly award this season.
No. 19 Kansas (27-6, 9-3 Big 12) sits in sole possession of first place in the Big 12 standings. The Jayhawks have won a season-high nine consecutive games, including a sweep at UCF this past weekend. The 27-6 overall record is the best record through the first 33 games in program history and the 9-3 start to conference play is also the best start to a Big 12 season in school history.
The Jayhawks will have four games this week, beginning on Tuesday with Nebraska at Hoglund Ballpark at 6 p.m. CT. Then, Kansas will go on the road to play No. 24 TCU in a three-game conference series this weekend.
