February 17, 2004
Texas junior 2B Seth Johnston of Boerne, Texas, Baylor freshman pitcher Cory Van Allen of Sugar Land, Texas, Oklahoma junior pitcher David Purcey of Dallas, Texas, and Texas A&M junior pitcher Zach Jackson of Cranberry Township, Pa., have been selected as Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Baseball Player of the Week and Pitchers of the Week, respectively, in voting by a select panel of media covering Big 12 baseball for games played from Feb. 10-16.
Johnston was chosen as Most Outstanding Player in the Minute Maid Park College Classic last week in Houston after peppering two clutch home runs in Longhorns' wins over No. 1 nationally Rice and Houston. Texas swept three contests in the tourney with an opening 6-0 win over Ohio State as Johnston went 5-for-10 (.500) with four RBI. His two-run homer against Rice started a Texas comeback, and he singled in the go-ahead run vs. the Owls with two outs in the eighth to give UT a 4-3 lead in a 6-3 victory. One night later, Johnston belted an eventual game-winning solo homer in the Longhorns' 6-5 triumph over Houston on the Houston Astros' home turf.
Van Allen retired the first 18 hitters of his college career over six innings as he teamed with Zane Carlson to throw a seven-inning no-hitter in BU's 1-0 win over Loyola Marymount. The freshman lefthander faced 19 hitters as the leadoff man reached first in the top of the seventh of the seven-inning encounter on an error while striking out four LMU batsmen.
Purcey worked the first seven innings of Oklahoma's 6-0 win over Arizona State in the Surprise (Ariz.) Coca Cola Classic and also earned COLLEGIATE BASEBALL National Pitcher of the Week honors with BU's Van Allen. He allowed just one hit while striking out six and walking two over seven innings as the OU hurler combined with Jarod McAuliff to post the first shutout against ASU in a NCAA-record 506 consecutive games-dating back to a 9-0 Southern California blanking of the Sun Devils in 1995. Purcey retired 16 straight ASU hitters after an infield single and was named to the Classic All-Tournament team.
Jackson also debuted in an auspicious manner for the 2004 Aggies after transferring to Aggieland from Louisville. The junior lefty needed just 93 pitches to toss a seven-inning no-hitter (complete game due to 10-run rule) with eight strikeouts and one walk in a 15-0 victory over NCAA Division I independent Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. It was 10th no-hitter in history by Aggie pitchers, the sixth (of a current seven) in Big 12 annals and the first solo gem since the Aggies' Matt Blank fired a no-hitter against Texas-Pan American in the 1996 home opener.