The College Baseball Foundation announced on Tuesday morning that Coppin State’s Jordan Hamberg has been named the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Week. Hamberg was also one of 13 players nationwide named to the 2022 John Olerud Player of the Year Award Watch List which was unveiled on Tuesday morning as well.
Click here to view the College Baseball Foundation release
A sophomore from South Plainfield, N.J., Hamberg hit .381 last week with eight runs, ten RBI, a double, triple and two home runs in five games. Hamberg also earned the win in the series finale against Maryland Eastern Shore on Sunday, striking out a career-high ten batters in 6.2 innings while allowing just one earned run. He was later named the MEAC Co-Player of the Week for his efforts.
“Jordan does so many things well in this game that I sometimes forget that he’s only a true sophomore,” said head coach Sherman Reed. “Given his advanced skills as an outfielder, left-handed hitter and left-handed pitcher, Major League Baseball is going to have a tough call on his projected position at the next level. Coupled with his advanced baseball I.Q., he’s a very special player who also gets it done academically.”
Building on an impressive freshman campaign from 2021, Hamberg is 3-1 with a 3.55 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 33 innings of work while also hitting .339 with three home runs and 18 RBI in 19 games this season.
“The players on this year’s list are truly some of the top athletes in college baseball and are making tremendous impacts on the mound, at the plate and in the field,” said George Watson, chairman of the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year selection committee. “It will be exciting to keep an eye on them going forward.”
The award is named for former Washington State University standout John Olerud, who achieved success both as a first baseman and left-handed pitcher during the late 1980s. Olerud went on to play 17 seasons in the Major Leagues where he was a two-time All-Star and World Series Champion, three-time Gold Glove Award winner and the 1993 AL batting champion. He was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. The award will be presented by the College Baseball Foundation later this summer.
Headlining the list this year are five players who already have distinguished themselves by earning Olerud Player of the Week honors, including Hamberg.
2022 JOHN OLERUD TWO-WAY PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD WATCH LIST
Name School
Paul Skenes Air Force
Andrew Eppinger New Jersey Tech
Caden Grice Clemson
Jordan Hamberg Coppin State
Nolan McClean Oklahoma State
Blake Adams Kansas State
Dylan Phillips Kansas State
Alex Barker Monmouth
Michael Braswell South Carolina
Jacob Pennington Murray State
Cameron Jones Georgia State
Braden Montgomery Stanford
Devin Ortiz Virginia