BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Matt Payton has been named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week for the week of April 5, announced Monday by the league office. He becomes the second WKU player of the week and third Hilltopper weekly award winner of the season, joining Matt Rice and Matt Ridings as players who have been honored by the conference this season.
Payton completed a monster five-game week for the Hilltoppers, hitting .550 (11-for-20) in games against Murray State, Belmont and three against South Alabama. Four of his 11 hits were triples, and he reached base at a .625 clip for the week with two stolen bases. He also scored 10 runs and drove in eight, helping the Hilltoppers to a 4-1 record during the week.
The senior from Louisville, Ky., had multiple-hit games in four of the five contests in the week, including three-hit games in each of three games against Sun Belt Conference foe South Alabama. He also scored a run in all five games, giving him a team-high 46 on the season. He hit three triples in the weekend series against the Jaguars alone, and his nine triples this season are the most in a single season in WKU history and approaching the all-time Sun Belt Conference record.
Payton was only kept off base three times in the entire series against South Alabama, just once in each game.
In 34 games this season, Payton leads the team in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs, hits, triples and total bases. He is second in home runs and third in doubles.
This is Payton's first career Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week award.
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