FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
S-107-05-06
Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Elizabethtown College Juniors Tyler Hoffman & Dean Whetham Named Commonwealth Conference Pitcher of the Week & Player of the Week

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College junior Tyler Hoffman (Phoenix, MD/Loyola Blakefield) has been named the Commonwealth Conference’s Pitcher of the Week, and Elizabethtown College junior third baseman Dean Whetham (Wilmington, DE/Brandywine) has been named the Commonwealth Conference’s Player of the Week in baseball for the week ending May 7.

Hoffman’s iron-man performance in the Commonwealth Conference playoffs last week proved a key factor in Elizabethtown’s capturing of the conference title and earned him the playoffs’ Most Valuable Player award. In back-to-back days, he pitched 13-2/3 innings, earned two wins and posted a 1.98 ERA. Friday morning, with Elizabethtown trailing Lebanon Valley 2-0 with two outs in the top of the third inning and facing elimination from the conference tournament, Hoffman entered the game in relief with the bases loaded and got Elizabethtown out of the jam. He proceeded to finish the game, pitching the next six innings as Elizabethtown came from behind to win 9-3. In 6-1/3 innings against Lebanon Valley, he allowed just four hits, two walks and one run while striking out one. The next day, Hoffman started on the mound as Elizabethtown faced Juniata, which the Blue Jays had not beaten in three previous meetings in 2006. He pitched the first 7-1/3 innings of the game, spreading nine hits, two walks and two runs over that span while striking out five batters. Elizabethtown won the game 4-2, and Hoffman earned another win. The Blue Jays went on to defeat Juniata again 9-5 in Saturday’s second game to claim their first conference title since 2001.

Thus far this season, Hoffman has a 7-2 record and leads the Blue Jays in wins, innings pitched (80-1/3) and complete games (5). He has a 3.92 ERA in 13 appearances and 11 starts, and he has walked just 18 batters while striking out 48. His 80-1/3 innings this season rank fifth all-time at Elizabethtown, and his seven wins in 2006 rank 12th.

In five Commonwealth Conference playoff games last week, Whetham led Elizabethtown with a .476 batting average, a .560 on-base percentage and 10 hits while also scoring six runs, driving in five more runs, hitting a triple, drawing two walks and getting hit by a pitch twice. In Etown’s first game of the week, a 6-4 opening-round playoff loss to Widener Thursday, he batted 2-for-5. On Friday night, he batted 3-for-5 with a triple, a walk, three runs scored and one RBI as the Blue Jays got their revenge against Widener, winning 16-8 and eliminating the Pioneers from the double-elimination tournament. Saturday began with Elizabethtown having to defeat Juniata, a team against which Etown had gone 0-3 in the regular season, twice in order to win the conference title. Whetham batted 1-for-4 with a walk, a run and an RBI as Elizabethtown won Saturday’s first game 4-2. The Blue Jays also defeated Juniata for the second time Saturday 9-5, and in that game Whetham hit 4-for-4 with a walk, a run scored, and an RBI.

Thus far in 2006, Whetham is leading Elizabethtown in batting average (.373) and hits (50) while playing in and starting 37 of the Blue Jays’ 40 games. He has scored 24 runs and driven in 27 more this season while totaling five doubles and three triples. He has a slugging percentage of .455 and an on-base percentage of .440, and he has 10 walks, six times hit by a pitch and two stolen bases in 2006.