The Coastal Plain League announced today that Cade Swisher of the Tri-City Chili Peppers was named Hitter of the Week, while Chris Ludman of the Peninsula Pilots earned Pitcher of the Week honors for the first week of the CPL regular season (May 27 – 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.
Swisher, a red-shirt freshman at Virginia Tech, lived up to the Chili Pepper name starting the season with a scorching .500 average across six games played and 24 at-bats. In total he notched 12 hits including three doubles and one home run while driving in six runs and scoring five of his own. The outfielder also drew one walk and two hit-by-pitches to finish the week with a .536 on-base percentage to go along with a 1.286 OPS and .750 slugging.
On the mound, Ludman was absolutely dominant across two appearances for the Pilots in the extended first week of the CPL season. The University of Delaware junior’s first CPL start of the season came on May 31 versus Holly Springs in which he went seven innings, allowing only one hit and walking none while striking out five. He then entered in relief of the Pilots game versus Martinsville on June 5 to put up three more scoreless innings of work, allowing no hits and no walks and striking out four. In total he finished the week with 10 innings pitched, one hit allowed, no walks allows and nine strikeouts for a 0.10 WHIP and .032 batting average against.