The Coastal Plain League announced today that Ben Watson of the Morehead City Marlins was named Hitter of the Week, while Hayden Snelsire of the Tri-City Chili Peppers earned Pitcher of the Week honors for the first week of the CPL regular season (May 26 – June 5). CPL Players of the Week are brought to you by Trackman Baseball, providing players and coaches next-generation analytical data all season long.

Watson, a redshirt freshman at Elizabethtown College, started the season with a scorching .556 average across seven games played and 27 at-bats. In total he notched a league-best 15 hits including three doubles while driving in 5 runs and scoring 11 of his own. The Marlins outfielder also drew eight walks to finish the week with a .657 on-base percentage to go along with a 1.324 OPS and .667 slugging.

On the mound, Snelsire was absolutely dominant across two appearances for the Chili Peppers in the extended first week of the CPL season. The junior from Randolph-Macon got his first CPL start of the season on Opening Day versus Martinsville in which he went six innings, allowing only two hits, walking two and striking out 4 to earn the win. He then made his second start of the season on June 2 at Peninsula. In that outing, the 6-3, 210-pound righty was untouchable, throwing four innings of hitless baseball, while striking out seven of 13 batters faced. Overall on the week, he finished with a 1-0 record, giving up just a pair of hits in 10 innings, while only walking two and striking out 11.