Loftin, Dickens Earn Big 12 Weekly Honors

WACO, Texas – Sophomore infielder Nick Loftin was named Big 12 Player of the Week, while junior college transfer pitcher Paul Dickens was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week, the conference office announced on Monday afternoon.

Loftin earned the first Player of the Week honor of his career after swinging a hot bat over the week, slashing .565/.913/.615 as the Bears went 4-1, including a series win at Kansas. The sophomore batted .565 (13-for-23) and recorded multi-hit performances in all five games. In the series win at Kansas he was 8-for-15 with six RBIs and two home runs. The Corpus Christi native is riding a 10-game hitting streak and has had eight-straight multi-hit performances. Over those 10 games, nine of them have been multi-hit performances. Loftin leads the Big 12 in batting with a .397 average and also leads in hits (46) and total bases (72).

Loftin, a 2018 Freshman All-American, earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Week honors once last season.

Junior left-handed pitcher Paul Dickens earned his first Newcomer of the Week honor after striking out a career-best 12 batters in six innings of work, en route to the Bears’ series-opening 8-2 victory at Kansas on Saturday afternoon. The Fort Worth native allowed just two runs on two hits and he averaged two strikeouts an inning as his 12 Ks on the day were a career-best and the most by any Big 12 pitcher in a conference game this season. Dickens currently ranks tied for third in the Big 12 with 49 strikeouts on the year.

This is the first weekly honor of Dickens’ career.

The weekly honors for Loftin and Dickens are the first of the year for the Bears and the 17th and 18th weekly honors the Bears have received under fourth-year head coach Steve Rodriguez.