Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
After helping lead the charge offensively for Louisiana Tech, Philip Matulia was named the Conference USA Hitter of the Week in an announcement made by the league office Monday.
Matulia and the Bulldogs went 3-1 this past week, collecting a 10-2 victory over BYU on Monday followed by a series win over Nicholls State.
The senior batted .389 with seven hits (four of those being of the home run variety) and 10 runs batted in. He hit a three-run shot versus the Cougars to blow the game open and then followed that up with a career performance in the series opener versus the Colonels.
Matulia recorded a career-high four hits while collecting two home runs and registering a career-high five RBIs (was his first career multi-homer game). He banked out another home run on Saturday, a two-run opposite field homer that tied the game up, and then extended his hitting streak to five with a single during Sunday’s game.
The first baseman/designated hitter ranks first in C-USA and fifth in the country in total home runs with five. He also ranks top 50 in the country currently in slugging percentage (.960) and total bases (24).
This is the first C-USA Hitter of the Week honor for Matulia. He becomes the 15th Bulldog in program history to earn this weekly award.
Matulia and the Bulldogs go on the road for the first time this season, traveling to Oxford, Mississippi to take on the defending national champions and 4th-ranked Ole Miss Rebels. The two teams will play a two-game series on today and Wednesday at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field with both games starting at 4 p.m.
Defending NCAA national champion Ole Miss has picked up right where they left off, having won six of their seven games so far in 2023. The Rebels opened the year with a three-game sweep versus Delaware, then picked up a midweek win over Arkansas State, and took two of three from No. 13-ranked Maryland this past weekend.
Ole Miss, who is ranked as high as No. 4 in the country currently, has been crushing the baseball. The Rebels rank in the top 10 in the nation in batting average (.361), home runs (18), and slugging percentage (.670). They have scored double-digit runs in six of their seven games.
