FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
S-132-06-07
Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Elizabethtown College’s Jared Auman and Tyler Hoffman Named Commonwealth Conference Baseball Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week, Respectively 

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College junior catcher Jared Auman (Northumberland, PA/Shikellamy) and senior pitcher Tyler Hoffman (Phoenix, MD/Loyola Blakefield) have been named the Commonwealth Conference baseball Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for the week ending May 6.

The pair helped secure Elizabethtown’s second consecutive conference title and automatic NCAA Division III tournament berth last weekend in the Commonwealth playoff tournament in West Lawn, Pa.

Jared Auman '08.

Auman led Elizabethtown in batting average during the playoffs last week, going .412 at the plate and tying for the team lead in hits with seven and in doubles with two. He also had a .444 on-base percentage and a .529 slugging percentage with a walk, a sacrifice bunt, three runs scored and two runs batted in.

In Elizabethtown’s first-round game Thursday, a 5-3 win over Messiah College that was the Blue Jays’ closest game of the week, Auman hit 3-for-4 with a double, and he scored two and drove in another of Etown’s five runs. He went 1-for-5 with a double in Elizabethtown’s 9-4 win over Widener University Friday, and he went 1-for-3 with an RBI in Etown’s 9-2 loss to Widener Saturday. In Elizabethtown’s championship-winning 12-1 victory over Widener Saturday, he batted 2-for-5 with a run scored.

Tyler Hoffman '07.

On the mound, Hoffman started and won two games in the playoffs from Thursday to Saturday, pitching a total of 14 innings over three days. In that span, he allowed 16 hits, five walks, three runs and just two earned runs for a 1.29 ERA during the playoffs. He also struck out six batters, and he was ultimately named the Most Valuable Player of the 2007 Commonwealth Conference playoffs.

Hoffman was the starting and winning pitcher in Elizabethtown’s first playoff game last week, a 5-3 win over Messiah College Thursday. In that game, he went seven innings and allowed 10 hits, three walks, two runs and one earned run while striking out five. In Saturday’s second game against Widener Saturday, Hoffman was brought back as the starting pitcher, despite having just thrown seven innings two days earlier. He spread just six hits, two walks and one run over seven innings while striking out one as Elizabethtown won the game 12-1 to take the championship.

Thus far this season, Auman is batting .416 to lead the team, and he leads the Blue Jays in hits (57), doubles (10), runs batted in (27), slugging percentage (.540) and on-base percentage (.481). He is also tied for the team lead in triples (2) and home runs (1), and he is second on the team in walks (18) and sacrifice flys (3) and third on the team in runs scored (22).

So far in 2007, Hoffman has a 7-2 win-loss record and a team-best 2.50 earned run average in 11 appearances, all of them starts. He has tossed five complete games and one shutout in 2007. In a team-leading total of 79-1/3 innings pitched, he has allowed 77 hits, 21 walks, 35 runs and 22 earned runs while striking out 40 batters, and he has held opposing hitters to a .252 batting average.