Junior right fielder Jake Sanford earned back-to-back Conference USA Hitter of the Week honors after his strong start to conference play. Sanford becomes only the third player in the conference since 2010 to win the award in consecutive weeks.

“The biggest thing about Jake is how he has remained confident in his ability and consistent in his approach,” head coach John Pawlowski said. “He just goes about his business and what you see is what you get. He’s a down to earth person who is a tremendous student athlete here at WKU and we’re glad to have him.”

Sanford had a .600/.636/1.400 line last week which helped the Hilltoppers go 3-0-1, pushing their record to 14-11-1 for the season. The Hilltoppers currently sit in second place in the C-USA standings with a 7-1-1 record, which is their best start in league play since 2009 where WKU started 8-1 in the Sun belt conference.

In their last road game against Eastern Kentucky where WKU won 12-9, Sanford went 3-for-6 with all three hits being home runs, eight RBIs and scored four runs.

Sanford is only the fourth C-USA hitter to hit three home runs in a game since 2010. He also became the second WKU player to win Hitter of the Week twice in the same season.

In their most recent home series against the Charlotte 49ers, Sanford went 9-for-14 in his plate appearances, including seven RBIs and two home runs.

 “It was great,” Sanford said of the month of March.  “I just wanted to keep playing the way I did and put the team first and whatever happens, happens.”

The Hilltoppers have a four-game road trip starting on Tuesday against the sixth ranked team in the nation, Vanderbilt Commodores. After that they head to Murfreesboro to face conference rival Middle Tennessee for a three-game series, with the first game starting at 6 p.m. Friday night.

Baseball reporter Kaden Gaylord can be reached at 270-745-6291 and [email protected] Follow him on Twitter at @_KLG3.