NAPERVILLE, Ill. – North Central’s Rob Marinec and Wheaton’s Ty Hoeksema were selected as the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Baseball Players of the Week on Tuesday.
 
Marinec, a freshman catcher from Alsip, Illinois and Shepard High School, helped lead the Cardinals to a pair of wins over MacMurray to open the 2018 season. He finished 2-for-4 with four RBI and one run scored in an 8-5 win in the season opener on Saturday. He also finished with a three-run home run in the seventh, followed by an RBI-single in the eighth as part of a seven-run comeback over the final two innings. On Sunday, Marinec was 2-for-4 with five RBI and two runs in a 12-8 win. He added another three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth after he drove in two runs in the first on a double.
 
Hoeksema, a senior pitcher from Davenport, Iowa and Davenport Central High School (Business/Economics major), picked up the victory in Wheaton’s 12-2 win at then seventh-ranked Birmingham Southern on Saturday. He pitched a total of five innings, which included a 53-minute rain delay, and scattered five hits, gave up two earned runs and struck out four batters. It was Wheaton’s first win against a top-10 ranked opponent in more than 20 years.
 
2018 CCIW Baseball Players of the Week
 
Hitter
Rob Marinec – North Central (2/27/18)
 
Pitcher
Ty Hoeksema – Wheaton (2/27/18)
 
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The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) was founded in 1946 and currently services nine member institutions including Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), Carroll University (Waukesha, WI), Carthage College (Kenosha, WI), Elmhurst College (Elmhurst, IL), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL), Millikin University (Decatur, IL), North Central College (Naperville, IL), North Park University (Chicago, IL) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL). During the 2016-17 academic year, the CCIW honored over 1,900 academic all-conference recipients, 10 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 33 CoSIDA Academic All-District recipients, one CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year and over 100 all-Americans.