Hunter Renfroe named PCL Player of the Week

ROUND ROCK, Texas – The Pacific Coast League announced today that El Paso Chihuahuas outfielder Hunter Renfroe and Nashville Sounds left-hander Dillon Overton have been named the Player and Pitcher of the Week for April 18 -24.

Renfroe has homered in each of the last four games, the second longest streak in the PCL this year (Zunino, 5 straight, 4/13-18). His 1.048 slugging and 1.548 OPS from this past week led all of Minor League Baseball, while his four home runs were tied for tops in MiLB. Additionally, Refroe hit .429 (9-for-21), collecting 22 total bases, with six RBI and seven runs scored. The 24-year-old hit safely in five of six games, recording multiple hits in four of those contests.

The Mississippi native was selected by the Padres with the 13th overall pick in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft out of Mississippi State. Ranked as San Diego’s third-best prospect by Baseball America, Renfroe has hit .274 (368-for-1344) with 57 home runs and 208 RBI in 346 career games. He is the first Chihuahua to be named Player of the Week since Cody Decker, who took home the honors for the week of May 4 -10, 2015. This is Refroe’s third career Player of the Week, also collecting the accolade in 2013 with Single-A Eugene and in 2014 with the Arizona Fall League’s Surprise Saguaros.

Overton pitched his first career complete game in his only appearance of the week, going 7.0 innings and allowing one run on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts, April 20 at Colorado Springs in the second game of a double-header. He threw 63 of his season-high 94 pitches for strikes, retiring 10 batters in a row at one point. On the season, Overton has made three starts, going 1-1 with a 2.81 ERA (16.0 IP, 5 ER), two walks and 15 strikeouts.

The 24-year-old southpaw was the 2nd round pick of the Oakland Athletics in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Oklahoma. The Athletics’ eighth-best prospect according to Baseball America has a career 3.07 ERA (179.0 IP, 61 ER) with 174 strikeouts in 42 games (40 starts). Overton is the first Sounds pitcher to win this award since Barry Zito did so for the week of May 25 -31, 2015. This is his first career Pitcher of the Week.