Southeast Missouri State's Blum, Smith attract OVC baseball honors

Southeast Missouri State's impressive opening baseball series led to the Redhawks sweeping the Ohio Valley Conference first weekly individual honors of the season announced Monday.

Sophomore third baseman Jason Blum was named player of the week and senior Zack Smith was named pitcher of the week.

Blum and Smith helped the Redhawks win three straight at New Orleans over the weekend, Southeast's first three-game series sweep to start a season since 2001.

Blum, a native of Ste. Genevieve, Mo., hit .556 (5 for 9) with two home runs, six RBIs, two doubles, three runs scored, a 1.444 slugging percentage and a .750 on-base percentage.

The Valle Catholic High School graduate delivered a three-run homer in each of the final two games of the series.

Southeast pitcher Zack Smith was named the OVC pitcher of the week. Smith struck out a career-high 10 batters over seven innings during the Redhawks’ 6-1 win against the University of New Orleans on Saturday.

"Jason just had a phenomenal weekend," Southeast interim coach Steve Bieser said.

Smith, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., allowed one run over seven innings while striking out a career-high 10 batters during Saturday's 6-1 win. The left-hander gave up five hits and did not issue a walk.

"Zack really had a dominant performance," Bieser said.

-- Marty Mishow