University of St. Thomas Athletics
Graham Laubscher is the sixth pitcher under Coach Chris Olean to get a National Pitcher of the Week honor
Photo by: Wesley Dean
National weekly honor for Baseball's Graham Laubscher
4/12/2022 3:49:00 PM | Baseball
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NCBWA news release
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Morgantown, W.V. - Coming off the best performance in his Division I debut season, Tommie grad student Graham Laubscher received another elite award on Tuesday -- co-National Pitcher of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America.
On Monday, Laubscher was named Summit League Baseball Ticket Smarter Pitcher of the Week. These are was the first conference or national weekly awards for a Tommie baseball player in this inaugural Division I season.
The Stillwater, Minn., native handed first-place North Dakota State its first shutout loss in a nine-inning game this season. He combined with teammate T.J. Constertina on a two-hit shutout in Saturday's 6-0 win in the opener of a three-game conference series at Koch Diamond. Laubscher earned his first career D-I victory as he struck out a career-best 15 batters.
The lefthander set down the game's first 17 NDSU batters before a bloop single to right field with two out in the sixth inning broke up the perfect game. After giving up a ninth-inning hit, he left after 8 1-3 innings. He allowed two hits, three walks, and a hit batter against a Bison offense that came in with 33 home runs and a .290 season batting average.
Laubscher shared this week's award with Louisiana sophomore righthander Cooper Rawls (2-0, 0.93 ERA, 14 strikeouts in 9.2 innings).
This was the eighth such NCBWA national weekly honor for a St. Thomas pitcher in the award's 20-year history. All six who have received the award have been mentored by current St. Thomas coach Chris Olean in his roles as pitching coach or head coach. No other D-III program has received the weekly honor more than three times.
Previous 2022 D-I National Pitchers of the Week honorees compete for Florida, Oklahoma, UCLA, Western Kentucky, Mississippi State, Gonzaga, Cal Poly, Tennessee and Oregon State.
Strikeout Savvy
Laubscher's 12.8 average of strikeouts per nine innings puts him among the top 40 players in Division I. He has helped the Purple rank in the top 20 as a team in Ks per nine innings. St. Thomas also ranks in the top 30 in fielding percentage (.977) and top 50 in ERA (4.18) on the D-I national list.
A Division III All-America pitcher who led the Toms to a national runner-up finish in 2021, Laubscher broke the St. Thomas career strikeout record earlier this month. He has 290 Ks in 228 career innings. That includes 60 strikeouts in 42.1 innings in Division I.
St. Thomas (5-19 overall, 2-7 Summit League) lost to the Bison 4-1 and 8-7 in the next two games. The Toms lost the series 2-1 despite finishing with more runs (14-12) and hits (26-17) over the three contests.
The Purple are scheduled to play four non-conference games this week: Tuesday at Minnesota ( 3 p.m.); and three games in Texas on Friday and Saturday at Tarleton State.
St. Thomas NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week honorees
D-III Era
NCBWA news release
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Morgantown, W.V. - Coming off the best performance in his Division I debut season, Tommie grad student Graham Laubscher received another elite award on Tuesday -- co-National Pitcher of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America.
On Monday, Laubscher was named Summit League Baseball Ticket Smarter Pitcher of the Week. These are was the first conference or national weekly awards for a Tommie baseball player in this inaugural Division I season.
The Stillwater, Minn., native handed first-place North Dakota State its first shutout loss in a nine-inning game this season. He combined with teammate T.J. Constertina on a two-hit shutout in Saturday's 6-0 win in the opener of a three-game conference series at Koch Diamond. Laubscher earned his first career D-I victory as he struck out a career-best 15 batters.
The lefthander set down the game's first 17 NDSU batters before a bloop single to right field with two out in the sixth inning broke up the perfect game. After giving up a ninth-inning hit, he left after 8 1-3 innings. He allowed two hits, three walks, and a hit batter against a Bison offense that came in with 33 home runs and a .290 season batting average.
Laubscher shared this week's award with Louisiana sophomore righthander Cooper Rawls (2-0, 0.93 ERA, 14 strikeouts in 9.2 innings).
This was the eighth such NCBWA national weekly honor for a St. Thomas pitcher in the award's 20-year history. All six who have received the award have been mentored by current St. Thomas coach Chris Olean in his roles as pitching coach or head coach. No other D-III program has received the weekly honor more than three times.
Previous 2022 D-I National Pitchers of the Week honorees compete for Florida, Oklahoma, UCLA, Western Kentucky, Mississippi State, Gonzaga, Cal Poly, Tennessee and Oregon State.
Strikeout Savvy
Laubscher's 12.8 average of strikeouts per nine innings puts him among the top 40 players in Division I. He has helped the Purple rank in the top 20 as a team in Ks per nine innings. St. Thomas also ranks in the top 30 in fielding percentage (.977) and top 50 in ERA (4.18) on the D-I national list.
A Division III All-America pitcher who led the Toms to a national runner-up finish in 2021, Laubscher broke the St. Thomas career strikeout record earlier this month. He has 290 Ks in 228 career innings. That includes 60 strikeouts in 42.1 innings in Division I.
St. Thomas (5-19 overall, 2-7 Summit League) lost to the Bison 4-1 and 8-7 in the next two games. The Toms lost the series 2-1 despite finishing with more runs (14-12) and hits (26-17) over the three contests.
The Purple are scheduled to play four non-conference games this week: Tuesday at Minnesota ( 3 p.m.); and three games in Texas on Friday and Saturday at Tarleton State.
St. Thomas NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week honorees
D-III Era
- Sean Lindstrom, April 30, 2003
- Lonnie Robinson, April 2, 2008
- Matt Schuld, March 4, 2009
- Matt Schuld, May 5, 2010
- Matt Schuld, May 12, 2010
- Steve Maher, March 21, 2012
- Chris Chiriboga, April 7, 2021
- Graham Laubscher, April 12, 2021
Players Mentioned
Press Conference: Tommie Women's Basketball Head Coach Mandy Pearson
Thursday, March 26
Homegrown Tommies: Chase Cheslock
Thursday, March 19
Postgame: Tommie Women's Basketball, Summit League Semifinals v NDSU
Sunday, March 08
Postgame: Tommie Women's Basketball, Summit League Quarterfinals v ORU
Friday, March 06
