Caruthers & Serro Named May 8 Centennial Conference Baseball Player & Pitcher of the Week

by Sports Information
5/8/06

LANCASTER, PA – Rightfielder Corey Caruthers (Sr., Conestoga, PA/Penn Manor) and pitcher Ted Serro (Sr., Brooklyn, NY/Xavier) have been named the May 8 Centennial Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week for leading the Diplomats to a sweep of Haverford College to capture the 2006 Centennial Conference baseball title.

The title marks the third Centennial Conference crown in school history as the team previously won the 1995 and 2005 titles, and is the fourth title since the program’s inception in 1877 as F&M won the 1978 Middle Atlantic Conference championship.

Further, as champions of the Centennial Conference, F&M (28-9, 16-2 Centennial Conference) received the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regional Tournament as Franklin & Marshall will make its third appearance in the NCAA field after earning the CC’s automatic bid in 1995 and 2005.

The NCAA field will be announced on May 15.

Against Haverford in the championship series, Caruthers led the team at the plate going four-for-eight with four RBI and three runs scored in two games as the Diplomats swept Haverford 10-0 and 7-4. In game two, he keyed the Diplomats going two-for-four with four RBI as the Diplomats rallied from a 4-3 deficit to capture back-to-back crowns.

A 2006 second team and 2005 first team All-Centennial Conference selection, he is hitting .309 (42-for-136) with seven doubles, one triple, two homeruns, 28 RBI, 28 runs scored, a .419 slugging percentage, 19 walks and 15 stolen bases.

For his career, he is hitting .300 (157-for-524) with 25 doubles, five triples, five homeruns, 85 RBI, 96 runs scored, 61 walks and 53 stolen bases as he ranks third in hits and stolen bases, sixth in runs and seventh in doubles in school history.

Serro earned Pitcher of the Week honors after pitching a two-hit 10-0 shutout with two walks allowed and 11 strikeouts in game one of the championship series.

Against the Fords in game one, Serro, the 2005 and 2006 Centennial Conference Pitcher of the Year, showed why he earned the award allowing a single in the first inning, a walk in the third, a single in the fourth and a walk in the sixth for the Fords’ only base runners. Further, he struck out four of the final nine batters he faced while retiring 10 consecutive batters following a walk in the sixth inning to end the game and improve to 7-3 on the year with a 1.50 earned run average and 78 strikeouts in 72 innings.

For his career, he is 19-8 in 45 appearances, including 27 starts, with 11 complete games, five saves, 209 strikeouts and 52 walks in 206.1 innings as he ranks first in victories (18), second in strikeouts (209) and innings pitched (206.1) and fourth in complete games (11) in school history.

The Diplomats will continue the season on May 17-21 in the NCAA Regional Tournament.