Greensboro, NC (04/09/02)-- Guilford junior R.J. Marks (Browns Summit, NC/Northeast Guilford) earned the Old Dominion Athletic Conference's (ODAC) Baseball Player of the Week Award for the week ending April 7, the league announced Monday. Marks, a first-time Player of the Week recipient, joins teammates A.J. McCauley (Pittsburgh, PA/Plum) and Joe Dooley (Chantilly, VA/Chantilly) as the three Quakers' players to earn the weekly prize this year.

Marks, a 6-0, 190-pound catcher, paced the Quakers to a 3-0 week, including a sweep of ODAC rival Hampden-Sydney April 6. Against Hampden-Sydney, Marks went 5-9 in the doubleheader. During the second game he went 4-4 with four RBIs. Marks knocked in the go-ahead run in the fifth inning and hit a two-run homer in the Quakers' 10-3 win. In a 19-8 win over Roanoke April 3, he went 6 for 6 with a home run and two doubles. His six hits matched a Guilford season high and marked the Quakers' most hits in a game since Zach Morgan had six hits in March 2000. Marks' batting average for the week was .733.

Marks ranks second on the team with a .380 batting average and leads the club with six home runs. He has nine doubles and 22 RBI and is in the midst of a 10-game hitting streak, during which he has hit .558 (24-43) with six doubles, a triple and two home runs. Marks ranked fourth among ODAC batting leaders through games of April 7 and was fifth in home runs.

Coach Gene Baker's Quakers (22-10, 9-3 ODAC) sit in second place in the conference standings and have surpassed their win total of the 2001 season (15). Guilford has won nine of its last 11 contests, including four straight and is ranked seventh in this weeks Division III South Region poll. The Quakers host ODAC rival Emory and Henry Saturday (04/12) in a noon doubleheader.

- Angela Rioux '02