NEW ORLEANS, La. – Little Rock senior pitcher
Aaron Funk has been named the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week, announced today by the league office. The honor is the third of Funk's Trojan career as Little Rock has now tallied Pitcher of the Week honors in back-to-back weeks.
Funk had arguably his best outing of the year Saturday evening against Louisiana, pitching 7.0 innings and allowing just four hits with no runs and four walks with eight strikeouts on 109 pitches. Of his 109 pitches, 73 were strikes as the eight strikeouts is tied for the second-most for Funk on the season, helping him retire 12 of 13 Cajun batters in the second through seventh innings to set the tone in a 4-3 Little Rock win.
The Lawrence, Kansas native is starting to find his groove as the Trojans' Saturday starter this season, registering a 4.31 ERA with 51 strikeouts over 48.0 innings for a 10.88 strikeout/nine ratio. It was his fourth quality start of the season as he upped his career strikeout total to 153, sitting on the verge of cracking the all-time top-10 list for career strikeouts in program history.
Funk becomes the third Trojan to earn weekly Sun Belt accolades this season, joining rotation teammate
Hayden Arnold (Pitcher of the Week – April 21) and
Kobe Barnum (Player of the Week – March 9). Funk earned back-to-back Pitcher of the Week accolades over the final two weeks of the shortened 2020 season, as he joins Brad Cherry (2003-04) as the only Trojan to earn three Pitcher of the Week honors during his Little Rock career.
Funk and the rest of the Trojans currently sit in first place in the Sun Belt West Division standings and have a key road conference series this weekend, heading to UT Arlington to face the Mavericks who are a game and a half back. The three-game series gets underway Friday, April 30 at 6:30 p.m. at Clay Gould Park.
#LittleRocksTeam
