In a critical week for the Albany Dutchmen, it was one of the team’s youngest members that came through on multiple occasions, helping the Dutchmen to be in the PGCBL Playoff hunt in the final week of the season. Jack Weiller, who will head to Virginia in the fall, is the team’s final Spotlight Player of the Week.
Weiller’s selection marks the second consecutive year an incoming Virginia freshman earned the award, as All-College World Series selection Ernie Clement was an honoree during his time in Albany in the 2014 season.
The Waccabuc, New York native hit safely in three Albany games this week, but saved his biggest performance for one of the week’s biggest games. After a two-hit effort on Tuesday in a losing effort against Saugerties and a double and a run scored in Glens Falls on Wednesday, Weiller drove in two runs in a must-win game against the Dragons on Thursday.
Weiller started the game against the Dragons with an RBI single in the first inning, scoring fellow infielder Grayson Lewis (Rice) to give Albany a 1-0 lead, a lead the Dutchmen would not relinquish. I the sixth inning of the contest, he hit a sacrifice fly to plate Adam Gauthier (Dartmouth) for the fifth Dutchmen run. Albany would go on to win the game 6-1.
The next night in Little Falls, Weiller reached base twice and scored a run in another critical Dutchmen victory, a 9-5 decision over the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs. His run was the first of the game, scoring from third base when the DiamondDawgs threw down to second base to attempt to throw out a stealing Dutchmen runner.
The successes of Weiller have not been limited to the plate, as the incoming freshman has made several stellar plays in the infield as well as in the outfield, where he has been seeing time to fill out the Dutchmen lineup card.
Weiller came to the Dutchmen full-time in late June after a stellar senior season at John Jay High School in Cross River, New York. He was named a 2015 Perfect Game Northeast Region First Team All-American, and was named an ABCA/Rawlings High School All-Region selection for the Northeast. Weiller has been a critical part of the Dutchmen efforts in the final month of the season, and will be a factor as Albany attempts to make the playoffs for the third year in a row.
