VMI Baseball: Zak Kent named SoCon Pitcher of the Week

VMI junior Zak Kent was named the Southern Conference’s Pitcher of the Week for the week of March 18, announced Monday by the conference office.

Kent tied a school record Sunday as the VMI baseball team defeated visiting Lehigh University 11-1 in non-conference play. The junior right-hander struck out 15 batters, tying the program record for strikeouts in a single game in the aluminum bat era (a mark set in 1998).

The Mountain Hawks first batter of the game flew out; Kent’s next 11 recorded outs were via strikeout. He fanned eight-straight players before Lehigh grounded out to start the top of the fifth. For day, Kent finished seven frames, giving up just one hit, one walk, and one run while tossing 103 pitches to even his record at 2-2 on the year and improve his ERA to 4.11. He has 46 strikeouts in 30 2/3 innings to lead the conference in the category.

VMI hosts Radford University Tuesday at 4 p.m. and opens SoCon play this weekend at The Citadel.