BOSTON – Suffolk baseball's Jon Lapolla continues to have a superior senior season as the Providence, Rhode Island native won this past week's national poll conducted by HeroSports.com as the National Offensive HERO of the Week in Division III baseball.
Lapolla was nominated for the honor last week on the heels of a 6-2 second Spring Break leg for the Rams and his first GNAC Corvias Player of the Week accolade of his storied career. The 6-foor-2 infielder beat out his competition, grabbing 87 percent of the votes, more than 130 than the second-place finisher with 146 of the near 200 submitted.
Lapolla took home the award on the strength of his 3-for-3 effort at the plate in a 7-3 triumph over UMass Boston March 17. He was one single short of the cycle, tallying a double, triple and home run to go along with four RBIs.
In the final eight games of Suffolk's southern trip, Lapolla batted .593, slugged .815, scored 12 times and added 13 RBI in eight games. He hit safely in each contest and produced seven multi-hit games, starting things off with a 3-for-6, three run, two RBI effort in a massive 18-4 victory over Clarkson. He continued to rake in the remainder of the week with his highlight day coming against the Beacons on St. Patrick's Day. The Spring Break trip was punctuated by Lapolla with a 2-for-5 effort, bringing in one and scoring one, respectively. Over the eight games, he stole six bags, including two in each game against Plattsburgh State.
Lapolla is one-of-four Rams to play and start all of Suffolk's 14 games this season. He currently sits among the GNAC's best multiple categories including his team-leading numbers in RBI (17 – 2nd)), runs (15 – 3rd) stolen bases (8 – 3rd), as well as hits (22 – 3rd).
Suffolk and Lapolla, who are receiving votes in the D3Baseball.com Top-25 and were just recently named the No. 5 in New England by NEIBA, have a busy week in store with three games over the next three days. Action gets underway at Western New England Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.