BOSTON – Charles Batchelder of the Suffolk baseball team has been selected as the GNAC Corvias Pitcher of the Week, the league office announced Monday afternoon.
Batchelder, a junior from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, dealt a complete-game shutout versus Stockton March 13 to grab the first weekly honor of his Suffolk career. He is also the third Ram of the 2018 season to be recognized by the league with Brady Chant and Will Hopkins earning player and rookie status March 12. Batchelder is the first arm on Suffolk's staff to receive pitching weekly accolades this season and first to do so since Ryan Pordes in the first week of the 2017 campaign.
The rightie threw the complete nine for his first win of the season with the full-game effort being his first-ever in a blue-and-gold uniform. Batchelder is the first Rams' arm to go an entire nine-inning contest on the bump this season and first to do so since Chuck Gibson did in a 4-0 victory over then-No. 22/18 St. John Fisher in the 2018 NCAA Division III New England Regionals May 18, 2017. Along the way Batchelder gave up just four hits, which marks the least by a Suffolk hurler in a complete-game since Gibson's three-hit, eight-strikeout, 9.0 inning, complete-game GNAC Championship shutout over Johnson & Wales May 7, 2017. Batchelder's nine strikeouts, meanwhile, not only marked a personal best, but the most times a Suffolk hurler fanned nine hitters since Gibson do so in the 2017 regional win over the Cardinals of St. John Fisher.
In his second start of the week, Batchelder put together a two-run, five-hit, one-walk, one-strikeout performance in the first 5.0 frames against Illinois Wesleyan.
Batchelder has been the most successful hurler for Suffolk this season with a 1.29 ERA in 14.0 innings pitched with 10 Ks and a 1-0 record.
Batchelder and the Rams are set to open their New England schedule this weekend as a trip to UMass Boston is on the slate for Saturday, March 24. Weather and field conditions pending, first pitch of the non-conference doubleheader is set for 12:00 p.m.