April 21, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - La Salle's Kevin Fuqua was named the Atlantic 10 Conference's Co-Rookie of the Week after throwing a complete-game three hitter on Sunday in the Explorers' 3-2 victory over Fordham.

He retired 15 of the first 17 batters he faced, then after allowing the only two runs of the game on a single in the sixth, got a double-play ball, then pitched three perfect innings to end the contest.

He became just the 14th pitcher in La Salle's history to throw four complete games in one season and the first since 2000.

Fuqua is among the conference-leaders in overall and conference-only stats.

Overall, he is first in complete games - and has actually thrown more than all A-10 schools except Saint Louis' six (four team have three) - second in innings (67.0), tied for second in strikeouts (53), eighth in opponents' batting average (.237), and tied for eighth in wins (4).

In A-10 only games, he is third in both innings (38.2) and opponents' batting average (.215), while holding the sixth spot in ERA (2.79) and is 13th in strikeouts (23).

With the honor, Fuqua becomes the first La Salle pitcher to garner a pair of Rookie of the Week honors and joins current Explorer John Malloy as the only players with multiple honors in La Salle's history (Malloy had four in 2007). He joins Richmond's Billy Barber as the only two players named A-10 Rookie of the Week twice this season.

He shared the honor with Temple's Byron McKoy, who batted .478 with eight runs, five RBI and he helped the Owls sweep then first-place Duquesne.

The Explorers return to action Tuesday, when they travel to State College to take on Penn State, first pitch scheduled for 6:35 PM. They will then host Rhode Island this upcoming weekend in a three-game A-10 series starting Friday at 3 PM at Hank DeVincent Field.