North Carolina’s Parks Harber clubbed six home runs on the week — four as part of a 14-homer weekend barrage from the Tar Heels as they swept Wake Forest on the road. Plus, a solo no-hitter, a 17-strikeout performance, and a .789 batting average for the week in this edition of Last Week’s Leaderboards.

Inspired by a recurring NBC Sports column, this weekly piece will serve to highlight the leaders throughout the country both at the plate and on the mound. For rate stats, the minimum is 12 ABs (average of three at-bats per game for a typical four-game week). The dates considered are Tuesday-to-Monday, capturing both weekend series and midweeks.

Without further ado, let’s get into the leaders!

Hitting Leaders (Week of March 19th)

Hits

1. Will Aubel, Bellarmine — 15 hits
2. Payton Brennan, UCLA — 12 hits
3. Mason Lytle, UTSA — 12 hits
4. Zach Brush, Le Moyne — 11 hits
5. Jackson Nicklaus, Oklahoma — 11 hits
6. Caden Kendle, UC Irvine — 11 hits
7. Jasen Oliver, Indiana — 11 hits

It has not been a banner season for Bellarmine as they sit at 4-23 on the year. Over the last week, though, the Knights have gone 3-1 and swept North Florida to bring their ASUN record to 3-6. Center fielder and leadoff hitter Will Aubel powered Bellarmine, going 15-for-19 (.789) in a four-game stretch. He went 3-for-3 in a loss to Morehead State, then showed out against the Ospreys — Aubel logged 5-for-6, 4-for-6, and 3-for-4 days with seven runs and three RBIs.

RBIs

1. Austin Bunn, Northern Colorado — 13 RBIs
2. William Parker, Army — 12 RBIs
3. Matt Bergevin, Fairfield — 12 RBIs
4. Jacob Christian, San Diego — 12 RBIs
5. Ike Irish, Auburn — 12 RBIs
6. Four players with 11 RBIs, including Trey Wright (Toledo) and Alex Lane (Northeastern)

Like Bellarmine, Northern Colorado has taken its lumps but have turned a corner. The Bears have won four straight, sweeping South Dakota State to move to 5-4 in Summit League play. Austin Bunn struggled to start the season and had been relegated to a bench role, but started all three games against the Jackrabbits and it paid dividends. He racked up 10 hits and drove in 13 runs, clubbing two home runs in the series opener. He finished the weekend 10-for-15 with eight runs and three long balls.

HOME RUNS

1. Parks Harber, North Carolina — 6 home runs
2. Garret Pike, Toledo — 6 home runs
3. Ty Dalley, Mercer — 5 home runs
4. Mike Sears, Indiana State — 4 home runs
5. Alex Vergara, Lipscomb — 4 home runs
6. Braden Montgomery, Texas A&M — 4 home runs

14. That’s the number of home runs that North Carolina piled up in a road series sweep against Wake Forest, a pitching staff that entered the year as potentially one of the nation’s best. Parks Harber, a transfer from Georgia, accounted for four of them as part of a six-homer week. Harber homered in five straight games, going back to the previous weekend series, before his streak ended in the series finale. He went 8-for-17 (.471) with nine RBIs in a big week.

STOLEN BASES

1. Cameron Leary, Boston College — 7 stolen bases
2. Jackson Tucker, St. John’s — 6 stolen bases
3. Marshall Toole, Wofford — 6 stolen bases
4. Zane Raba, Navy — 6 stolen bases
5. Six players with five stolen bases, including Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (Rutgers), Jimmy King (Holy Cross), and Tyler MacGregor (Northeastern)

Entering the 2024 season, Boston College’s Cameron Leary was known more for his bat than his prowess on the basepaths. Sure, Leary swiped 12 bags in 46 games last season, but the senior had just six in the previous two seasons. As it turns out, that component of his game has only developed and was on display this past week. Leary has stolen a base in six straight games — including four multi-SB games — and finished the week with seven to raise his season total to 15. As an aside, what an impressive weekend for Birdball: They swept a road series at Georgia Tech after taking a midweek against a tough UConn side.

TOP HITTERS

1. Jackson Nicklaus, Oklahoma – 2.262 OPS (3 HR, 6 RBI)
2. Garret Pike, Toledo – 2.207 OPS ( 6 HR, 10 RBI, 2 SB)
3. Tyson Drake, Tarleton St. – 2.188 OPS ( 3 HR, 10 RBI, 1 SB)
4. Austin Bunn, Northern Colo. – 2.173 OPS ( 3 HR, 13 RBI)
5. Ty Dalley, Mercer – 2.067 OPS ( 5 HR, 11 RBI)
6. Parks Harber, North Carolina – 2.029 OPS ( 6 HR, 9 RBI)

It was a tough weekend for recently-ranked Oklahoma. The Sooners routed Oral Roberts in the midweek before suffering a home weekend sweep at the hands of Lamar. Second baseman Jackson Nicklaus had quite the week, though. He logged four multi-hit games, drove in five runs, and hit a home run in every game against Lamar.

Pitching Leaders (Week of March 19th)

GAME SCORE

1. Grant Taylor, Washington State (vs. Washington) — 102
2. Nick Brink, Portland (vs. Mount St. Mary’s) — 95
3. Connor Mattison, Grand Canyon (vs. Sacramento State) — 95
4. Josh Salinas, UIW (vs. New Orleans) — 89
5. Sam Highfill, NC State (vs. Notre Dame) — 86
6. Louis Rodriguez, TCU (vs. Houston) — 86
7. Griffin Naess, Cal Poly (vs. Cal State Fullerton) — 86

Solo no-hitters, in college baseball, are incredibly difficult. To do so as a true freshman? Simply remarkable. That’s what Grand Canyon’s Connor Mattison did over the weekend against Sacramento State, scattering two walks and two hit batters while striking out 10. Two of the first three batters reached against him, but a double-play ended that threat and he only allowed two baserunners the rest of the way. Mattison was pegged as one of the top incoming freshman in the WAC and he has delivered on the hype.

STRIKEOUTS

1. Grant Taylor, Washington State — 17 strikeouts
2. Gage Ziehl, Miami — 15 strikeouts
3. Chase Burns, Wake Forest — 14 strikeouts
4. Merritt Beeker, Ball State — 13 strikeouts
5. Mario Pesca, St. John’s — 13 strikeouts
6. Aidan Major, West Virginia — 13 strikeouts
7. Danny Macchiarola, Holy Cross — 13 strikeouts
8. Payton Tolle, TCU — 13 strikeouts

Since we covered Mattison’s no-hitter above, the top performance by game score — and the most strikeouts — belonged to Washington State’s Grant Taylor. The senior righty hurled an absolute gem in a rivalry game against Washington, fanning 17 and allowing a single hit — to the third batter he faced. He didn’t walk a batter and ad one point struck out 10 straight batters in a complete game shutout. It was a dominant effort and earned the Cougars a 4-0 win.

SAVES

1. Landon Kruer, Navy — 3 saves
2. Zachary Nichols, Bryant — 3 saves
3. 11 players with 2 saves, including Austin Neal (Lamar), LP Langevin (Louisiana), and Hunter Cranton (Kansas)

It’s now five straight wins for the Midshipmen as they moved to 8-3 in the Patriot League with a sweep of Lafayette. Landon Kruer ranks 13th nationally with five saves in 10 appearances and he logged three of them in the past week. Kruer came in a one-run game against Holy Cross and stranded the tying run at third and retired all five batters he faced, then again inherited the tying run in the first game against Lafayette and got him to line out. He capped his weekend with a huge strikeout to strand another tying run at second base in the eighth before working a 1-2-3 ninth.

Featured Image via North Carolina Athletics