DALLAS (NCBWA) – The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association released its National Player of the Week awards for the period ending May 8. IPFW senior outfielder Brandon Soat was named National Hitter of the Week, while Texas A&M senior right-handed pitcher Kyle Simonds was named National Pitcher of the Week. The NCBWA Board reviews candidates from each Division I Conference each week and names winners each Tuesday throughout the season.

Soat batted .867 (13-15) in three road games to lead the Mastodons to a pair of league wins at South Dakota State University last weekend. He hit one home run, two triples, three doubles, scored seven runs, posted 11 RBI, drew two walks and had 23 total bases for a slugging percentage of 1.533, along with an on base percentage of .882.

Soat was 6-for-6 with two doubles, six RBI and a run scored in the first game of the series at SDSU. He followed that performance by going 2-4 with a home run, double, three RBI, two runs scored and a walk in the second game and closed the series with a 5-for-5 effort with two triples, two RBI, four runs scored and a walk in the third game of the weekend in Brookings, South Dakota.

Simonds posted one of the most efficient and dominating performances ever recorded in a top five match-up, tossing the sixth 9-inning complete-game no hitter in school history in the Aggies’ 3-0 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday. The only Vanderbilt runner reached base on an error with two outs in the first inning. He responded by retiring the next 25 batters. Simonds only had one 3-ball count on the afternoon, needing just 83 pitches on the day. He had five innings with less than 10 pitches and need just nine pitches to get through the last two innings, including four in the ninth.

The no-hitter came just one week after Simonds pitched his first career complete-game in a 6-2 win at Arkansas. He’s the first Aggie to pitch back-to-back complete-game since Daniel Mengden in May of 2013. Simonds threw A&M’s first no-hitter since Ross Stripling blanked San Diego State on May 12, 2012 and it marked A&M’s first no-hitter in a conference game since Fred Riscen held Rice without a knock in a 7-inning game on April 16, 1988.

Founded in 1962, the NCBWA is dedicated to the advancement of college baseball. Membership is open to writers, broadcasters and publicists of the sport. For more information about the NCBWA, visit the association's official Web site, www.ncbwa.com/a>.

For more information on the NCBWA Division I National Players of the Week, contact NCBWA Assistant Executive Director Mike Montoro at West Virginia University at 304-293-2821.

2016 NCBWA Division I Players of the Week:
• Feb. 21: Jeren Kendall, Vanderbilt (Hitter); Zach Muckenhirn, North Dakota (Pitcher)
• Feb. 28: Brandon Gutzler, Murray State (Hitter); Logan Shore, Florida (Pitcher)
• March 6: Darik Hall, Dallas Baptist (Hitter); Lucas Humpal, Texas State (Pitcher)
• March 13: Joe Cronin, Boston College (Hitter); Jesse Scholtens, Wright State (Pitcher)
• March 20: John Jones, South Carolina (Hitter); Seth Romero, Houston (Pitcher)
• March 27: Tyler Chadwick, Coastal Carolina (Hitter); Ryan Hingst, Arizona State (Pitcher)
• April 5: Tanner Kirwer, Niagara (Hitter); Andrew Wantz, UNCG (Pitcher)
• April 12: Michael Davis, Texas Tech (Hitter); Zac Gallen, North Carolina (Pitcher)
• April 19: Greg Guers, Penn State (Hitter); Shane McCarthy, Seton Hall (Pitcher)
• April 26: Logan Gray, Austin Peay (Hitter); Cody Sedlock, Illinois (Pitcher)
• May 3: J.B Woodman, Ole Miss (Hitter); Chad Donato, West Virginia (Pitcher)
• May 10: Brandon Soat, IPFW (Hitter); Kyle Simonds, Texas A&M (Pitcher)
• May 17: Blake Benefield, Middle Tennessee (Hitter); Eric Lauer, Kent State (Pitcher)
• May 24: Dillon Cooper, Alabama State (Hitter); Sam Perez, Missouri State (Pitcher)

2016 NCBWA Division I Players of the Month:
• February: Taylor Braley, Southern Miss (Hitter); Brendon McKay, Lousiville (Pitcher)
• March: Seth Beer, Clemson (Hitter); Seth Romero, Houston and Clarke Schmidt, South Carolina (Pitcher)
• April: Hunter Melton, Texas A&M (Hitter); Will Hibbs, Lamar (Pitcher)
• May: Daniel Johnson, New Mexico State (Hitter); Dakota Hudson, Mississippi State (Pitcher)