Chicago, Ill. – June 7, 2021 – A strong start to the season helped the Crestwood Panthers sweep the Midwest Collegiate League weekly honors for the opening week for the 2021 summer campaign. 

The league office announced on Monday that Tyler Schultz (Purdue Northwest / Hobart, Ind.) is the MCL Player of the Week and Benny Guevara (Emerson College / Hobart, Ind.) is the MCL Pitcher of the Week. 

Schultz and Guevara are both Northwest Indiana natives who were high school teammates and classmates at Hobart High School, where they graduated in 2020. Schultz became the first Panther to win MCL Player of the Week honors since Ray Hilbrich on July 27 of last season, while Crestwood has won back-to-back MCL Pitcher of the Week laurels with Dylan White earning the final 2020 award on Aug. 15. 

Schultz posted a .348 batting average and slugged .565 this week while collecting 10 RBIs, scoring four runs and ripping three extra-base knocks including a home run over his seven games. He helped the Panthers compile a 4-3 record over the season’s first week. The right-handed hitting infielder had three multi-hit outputs including a three-hit game on Wednesday at the Generals. He accrued four RBIs in Thursday’s win over Joliet, highlighted by a three-run home run in the eighth inning. 

Guevara turned in a dominant performance on Thursday against the Generals, yielding just three hits over eight shutout innings while racking up 10 strikeouts and issuing no walks. The right-handed pitcher earned the victory in his first start of the summer, an 8-1 triumph for the Panthers. 

The MCL weekly awards will be announced each Monday throughout the season. 

2021 Player of the Week Award Winners June 7 – Tyler Schultz, Crestwood 

2021 Pitcher of the Week Award Winners June 7 – Benny Guevara, Crestwood