May 9, 2005
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- After a weekend of blasting Northwestern pitching and leading Illinois to a series sweep of the Wildcats and a three game lead in the Big Ten standings, senior second baseman J.R. Kyes (Springfield, Ill.) has been raking in the accolades at both the conference and national level. Monday Kyes was named one of three Louisville Slugger National Players of the Week by Collegiate Baseball, then on Tuesday the Illini lead-off man was named both Co-Big Ten Player of the Week and NCBWA Pro-Line Caps National Hitter of the Week.
The Illini second baseman's crowning moment was a three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh of Saturday's doubleheader second game. The bomb to left field lifted Illinois to a 12-9 comeback victory.
Kyes hit 9-for-17 (.529) against Northwestern with four home runs, 13 RBI, nine runs, two doubles, a triple, a slugging percentage of 1.471 and an on-base percentage of .600 in the lead-off slot. Add in Tuesday's game vs. Southern Illinois and Kyes was 10-for-22 (.455) with 13 RBI, 10 runs, four homers and a 1.182 slugging percentage for the week.
Since earning the starting job at second base early in the season, Kyes has put up some monster numbers, especially in Big Ten play as he leads the conference in runs (29), total bases (67), triples (4) and slugging pct. (.713) in Big Ten games. He is also second in home runs (6), third in hits (34) and fifth in RBI (25) during league play.
Kyes is Illinois' second national weekly award winner this season. He joins first baseman Dusty Bensko (Pleasant Plains, Ill.) who was named the NCBWA Pro-Line Caps National Hitter of the Week for the week of April 4-10.
In addition to Kyes' honors, Head Coach Itch Jones' Fighting Illini cracked the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Top-30 Poll for the first time this year, falling in at No. 29. Illinois is the only Big Ten team in the poll. Tulane holds down the number one spot for the fifth consecutive week.
For more information go to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper or National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA).
