KANSAS CITY, Mo. - For the first time in program history, the Marian baseball team has earned the NAIA National Player of the Week award, as freshman phenom River Pecina's big week at the plate earned the honor for the outfielder and the Knights. Pecina's honor comes on the heels of earning his second Crossroads League Player of the Week award. 

Pecina had a huge week at the plate for (RV) Marian, going 11-of-17 with five home runs and eight extra-base hits for a slash line of .647/.682/1.706 during the team's 4-1 week. The freshman knocked in 16 runs in his five games and scored 10 times, putting up two or more base hits in four of the five games. For the week, Pecina had two multi-homer games, which were the second and third of his young career, putting him in the team lead with 13 on the season. 

Marian travels to No. 23 IU-Southeast on Wednesday for a 3:00 p.m. game for a key non-conference game before returning home to take on Bethel this weekend. Saturday's games in the Bethel series are Marian's alumni weekend games. 
 

The Knights are 26-9 overall and 19-5 in Crossroads League play, sitting in second place in the Crossroads League. Last week's four victories matched the program's most wins in CL play since 2017, while head coach Todd Miller claimed his 50th victory as the head coach of Marian.

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