May 12, 2008

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio senior Matt Stiffler has been named the Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week for his outstanding play the week of May 12, as announced by the league office Monday afternoon.

Stiffler batted .526 and posted a 1.263 slugging percentage to lead Ohio to a 5-0 record and a sweep of rival Miami this past week. Stiffler connected on four home runs for the week to increase his season total to 15 and extended his current hitting streak to 12 games. The Bellbrook, Ohio, native collected nine RBI and nine runs scored and posted a .609 on base percentage.

Stiffler is having one of the greatest seasons in the history of the Ohio baseball program. The center fielder enters this week in the top 10 for a season at Ohio in home runs (15; seventh), runs scored (64; second), hits (82; T-5th), and total bases (150; fourth).

Stiffler is batting .360 on the season and is second in the MAC in hits per game (1.58), runs scored per game (1.23) and triples per game (.12). The Bobcat leadoff hitter is leading the league in total bases per game (2.88) and is fourth in slugging percentage (.658).

For a career, Stiffler is currently first in triples (16), third in runs scored (167), sixth in total bases (353), seventh in hits (221) and 10th in doubles (40) all-time at Ohio.

Ohio (25-27, 12-12 MAC) plays its final conference series of the year at Buffalo this week. The series will get underway Thursday at 3 p.m.

----------------------------
Wes Liles is the baseball contact in the Ohio media relations office. He can be reached via email at liles@ohio.edu.