| ATHLETE OF THE WEEK (click here for past winners) This week PQ Sports Athlete of the Week is Evan Engelhardt of the RPLL Major Phillies. Evan had a great game on Tuesday, March 20 against the Rays. The Phillies and the Rays battled in a classic game that the Rays pulled out in the bottom of the 8th inning. Evan started on the hill for the Phillies and pitched an RPLL record 6 2/3 innings! He allowed only 2 baserunners in that span, a dominating performance. On top of his outstanding work on the mound, Evan came up with 2 runners on and 2 outs in the top of the 8th and delivered a clutch double to put the Phillies on top 3-1. The Rays, who have been the cardiac kids this season, put 2 runners on in the bottom of the 8th for Gavin Battle, who delivered a laser shot to left field tying the game. Bobby Lowrie then followed with a single up the middle scoring Battle, and the Rays walked off with an improbable 4-3 victory. Despite the loss, Evan deserves athlete of the week honors for his performance. If you couple the performance against the Rays with the complete game no hitter that he tossed a few weeks earlier, he has really shown dominance on the mound this year. Considering that many managers, including myself, thought that there may not be any complete games pitched this year with the new rules, it is pretty remarkable that Evan has pitched one complete game and once into the 7th inning. Congrats go out to Evan and all of the Phillies, along with all of the Rays, for putting on such an outstanding performance Tuesday evening. It was truly a game were it was a shame one team had to lose, they both played their hearts out! Come on down to Canyonside park someday to check out the action, it is the best game in town these days! PQ Sports is always looking for young athletes in our community to honor as athlete of the week. If you know of someone worthy, please email your nomination to chris@pqsports.com . Your athlete can be a senior pitcher or a 5 year-old soccer player that scored his/her first goal...we want to hear about them all! |

