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UL Lafayette's Robbins, UT Arlington's Simmons Earn Community Coffee Baseball Student-Athlete of the Week Honors
NEW ORLEANS - UL Lafayette's Joe Robbins and UT Arlington's Kadon Simmons were named this week's Community Coffee Sun Belt Baseball Student-Athletes of the Week the league office announced on Monday.

Robbins picked up the Community Coffee Student-Athlete of the Week honor after leading the Cajuns to a series win over Southeastern Louisiana. The Cajuns stepped out of conference play this weekend and dealt the Lions a pair of losses. Robbins was instrumental in the team's series this weekend as the junior went 7-for-15 in four games last week, including a win over No. 22 Tulane in midweek action.

Robbins had a double, two home runs, five RBI and scored four runs in four games last week as the Cajuns went 3-1. Robbins opened the week with a 3-for-4 effort and a game-high four RBI to lift the Cajuns to a 9-2 victory over No. 22 Tulane. Robbins followed that up with a home run off of one of the nation’s leading pitchers in Kyle Cedotal to ensure a 4-1 victory over the Lions in the series opener. Robbins closed out the weekend with a key double in the Cajuns five-run sixth inning to capture the series from SLU.

On the week, Robbins slugged .933 with a .556 on base percentage drawing two walks and was hit by a pitch. With the outstanding week at the plate, Robbins has raised his average from .316 to .333 on the season.

UTA's Simmons earned the league's Community Coffee Pitcher of the Week honor as he dominated in his Friday start against Georgia Southern, tossing the first complete game shutout for UT Arlington since Rhett Varner in 2010. He allowed just three hits on the night, and none after the fifth inning. In all Simmons needed 112 pitches to navigate through the night and retired 10 of the final 11 hitters he faced.

Simmons’ 10 punch outs were the most by a Maverick this season and the most for any UTA pitcher since 2013. He managed to find another gear late in the game too, getting half of his 10 strikeouts over the final three frames. The outing vaulted Simmons back in to the league’s top 10 in ERA (2.72), strikeouts (45), and innings pitched (59.2). He also currently is tied for the league lead with seven wins.

This week the Cajuns will host two in-state foes in Nicholls State (Tuesday) and McNeese State (Wednesday) before returning to conference action as they host Texas State for a three-game set. UTA will host Dallas Baptist on Tuesday in its lone midweek matchup. The Mavericks will travel to Troy to take on the Trojans this weekend.

Three teams continue to be ranked in the NCAA RPI's top 75 as the Ragin' Cajuns moved up this week to No. 15. USA fell back to No. 21 in the NCAA RPI while Troy remained at No. 72.

Recent Results

April 12 (Tuesday)
Tennessee 7, Appalachian State 5
Arkansas State 8, SE Missouri St. 13
UL Lafayette 9, Tulane 2
Texas State 1, Rice 3
Troy 7, Jacksonville St. 8 (16)
South Alabama 2, Southeastern Louisiana 1
UT Arlington 10, Houston Baptist 0 (8)
Arkansas 3, UL Monroe 1

April 13 (Wednesday)
Georgia Southern 8, Mercer 5
Central Arkansas 6, Little Rock 1

April 15 (Friday)
Texas State 7, Little Rock 8 *
Appalachian State 4, South Alabama 3 *
Arkansas State 1, Troy 11 *
UL Lafayette 4, Southeastern Louisiana 1
UL Monroe 3, Georgia State 7 *
Texas State 2, Little Rock 10 *
UT Arlington 4, Georgia Southern 0 *

April 16 (Saturday)
UT Arlington 0, Georgia Southern 6
Texas State 6, Little Rock 7
Appalachian State 1, South Alabama 8
UT Arlington 6, Georgia Southern 10
Arkansas State 4, Troy 3
Southeastern Louisiana 16, UL Lafayette 5
UL Monroe 14, Georgia State 0

April 17 (Sunday)
Appalachian State 4, South Alabama 3
Arkansas State 1, Troy 8
Southeastern Louisiana 4, UL Lafayette 5
UL Monroe 5, Georgia State 3

% - Game played in North Little Rock, Ark.

Upcoming Games

April 19 (Tuesday)
Wake Forest at Appalachian State 5:00 PM
Arkansas State at Southern Illinois 5:00 PM
The Citadel at Georgia Southern 5:00 PM
Stephen F. Austin at Little Rock 6:00 PM
Nicholls State at UL Lafayette 6:00 PM
Texas State at Texas A&M 6:00 PM
Troy at Alabama 6:00 PM
Dallas Baptist at UT Arlington 6:30 PM

April 20 (Wednesday)
Georgia Southern at The Citadel 5:00 PM
Georgia Tech at Georgia State 5:00 PM
McNeese State at UL Lafayette 6:00 PM
Mississippi Valley State at Arkansas State 6:00 PM
South Alabama at Alabama 6:30 PM
UL Monroe at Mississippi State 7:05 PM

April 22 (Friday)
Appalachian State at Georgia State * 5:00 PM
UL Monroe at Arkansas State * 6:00 PM
Little Rock at Georgia Southern * 6:00 PM
Texas State at UL Lafayette * 6:00 PM
UT Arlington at Troy * 6:00 PM
Southern at South Alabama 6:30 PM

April 23 (Saturday)
Appalachian State at Georgia State * 1:00 PM
UT Arlington at Troy * 3:00 PM
UL Monroe at Arkansas State * 6:00 PM
Little Rock at Georgia Southern * 6:00 PM
Texas State at UL Lafayette * 6:00 PM
Southern at South Alabama 6:30 PM

April 24 (Sunday)
Little Rock at Georgia Southern * 12:00 PM
Appalachian State at Georgia State * 12:00 PM
UL Monroe at Arkansas State * 1:00 PM
Texas State at UL Lafayette * 1:00 PM
Southern at South Alabama 1:00 PM
UT Arlington at Troy * 1:00 PM

* - denotes Sun Belt Conference game

Week 9 Community Coffee Student-Athlete of the Week

Joe Robbins
UL Lafayette | Junior | INF/OF
Junior Joe Robbins returned to form at the plate hitting .467 (7-for-15) with a double, two home runs, five RBI and scored four runs. Robbins opened the week with a 3-for-4 effort and a game-high four RBI to lift the Cajuns to a 9-2 victory over No. 22 Tulane. Robbins followed that up with a home run off of one of the nation’s leading pitchers in Kyle Cedotal to ensure a 4-1 victory over the Lions in the series opener. Robbins closed out the weekend with a key double in the Cajuns five-run sixth inning to capture the series from SLU. On the week, Robbins slugged .933 with a .556 on base percentage drawing two walks and was hit by a pitch. With the outstanding week at the plate, Robbins has raised his average from .316 to .333 on the season.

Week 9 Community Coffee Pitcher of the Week

Kadon Simmons
UT Arlington | Junior | RHP
Simmons dominated in his Friday start against Georgia Southern, tossing the first complete game shutout for UT Arlington since Rett Varner in 2010. He allowed just three hits on the night, and none after the fifth inning. In all Simmons needed 112 pitches to navigate through the night and retired 10 of the final 11 hitters he faced. Simmons’ 10 punchouts were the most by a Maverick this season and the most for any UTA pitcher since 2013. He managed to find another gear late in the game too, getting half of his 10 strikeouts over the final three frames. The outing vaulted Simmons back in to the league’s top 10 in ERA (2.72), strikeouts (45), and innings pitched (59.2). He also currently is tied for the league lead with seven wins.

Student-Athlete of the Week Archive
2.23 - Kyle Clement, UL Lafayette
3.01 - Luke Sherley, Texas State
3.08 - Ryan Scott, Little Rock
3.15 - Jonathan Ortega, Texas State
3.21 - Ryan Scott, Little Rock
3.28 - Ryan Scott, Little Rock
4.04 - Jack Thompson, Georgia State
4.11 - Joey Roach, Georgia State
4.18 - Joe Robbins, UL Lafayette

Pitcher of the Week Archive
2.23 - Chase Cohen, Georgia Southern
3.01 - Kevin Hill, South Alabama
3.08 - Lucas Humpal, Texas State
3.15 - Dylan Moore, UL Lafayette
3.21 - Jeremy Hallonquist, Texas State
3.28 - Brayden Bouchey, UL Monroe
4.04 - Kevin Hill, South Alabama
4.11 - Evan Guillory, UL Lafayette
4.18 - Kadon Simmons, UT Arlington

AROUND THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE

• Community Coffee is the official coffee of the Sun Belt Conference. They are sponsoring this season’s baseball student-athlete and pitcher of the week awards as well as the Most Outstanding Player award at the tournament.
• Three Sun Belt teams are ranked in the NCAA RPI Top 75. UL Lafayette is the highest rated team at No. 15 followed by South Alabama at No. 21. Troy is rated No. 72 in the NCAA RPI.
• ULM is coming off of a 2-1 series win over Georgia State... ULM dropped the opener to the Panthers, 7-3, on Friday night, before evening the series with a 14-0 blowout win on Saturday night... In the rubber game on Sunday, ULM rallied from a 3-2 deficit with three runs in the fifth to claim a 5-3 win and take the series.
• Texas State's Tanner Hill knocked his 12th and 13th home runs of the season this week to put him tied for fourth in the country in homers as he already leads the Sun Belt Conference.
• Troy won its third Sun Belt series this weekend and second over the past two weekends. Troy had its longest game of the season on Tuesday night, a 16-inning barnburner that ended with Jacksonville State victorious.
• Appalachian State took two-of-three from league leading South Alabama over the weekend with a pair of 4-3 wins. Friday night's win was a walk-off for the Mountaineers.
• UL Lafayette took two-of-three from Southeastern Louisiana over the weekend as the Cajuns stepped out of conference play for a weekend series with the Lions.