HOUSTON - Rice right-handed pitcher Jeff Niemann has been named the national college pitcher of the week by USA Today Sports Weekly, the newspaper has announced.
The 6'9" sophomore from Houston (Lamar HS) helped Rice shut out two ranked opponents last week. He pitched 2.2 innings in relief to earn his first career save in a 3-0 win at 20th-ranked Houston and then went 7.0 innings to improve to 2-0 on the year in a 6-0 win over number-25 Mississippi. He allowed only three hits and two walks in the two games and struck out nine batters.
Niemann will be the Owls' starting pitcher Friday at 7 pm when Rice hosts Southwest Texas State in the opening game of a three-game series at Reckling Park. Josh Baker (1-0) will get the start in Saturday's noon start, and Philip Humber (2-0) will get the nod at 1 pm Sunday.
Rice (8-1) goes into the series ranked number one nationally by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers. SWTSU is 5-7.
Earlier this week, Niemann had won his first-ever WAC pitcher of the week award. Rice pitchers have won that award the last two weeks; junior David
Aardsma was the honoree on Feb. 17.