PGCBL Announces First Weekly Awards of 2025
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y – With more than a week and a half of the 2025 season played, the PGCBL is excited to announce the first edition of Pitcher and Player of the Week Awards for the 2025 season.
East Division
Pitcher of the Week: Derek Duval, Amsterdam (College of Charleston)
Player of the Week: Brandon McCraine, Amsterdam (Auburn University)
Duval has been an anchor for the Mohawks pitching staff, appearing in four games in a number of different situations. He got the start on opening day and threw no-hit scoreless innings with four strikeouts on the way to Amsterdam's 8-5 victory over Oneonta.
The righty threw two more innings of relief without giving up a hit, including earning the win in Amsterdam's June 2nd 3-2 victory over Boonville. Yesterday Duval contributed three innings on the back end, helping to hold Amsterdam on for a 15-9 win over Saugerties. Again, Duval struck out four and has yet to allow a run in 8.0 innings. He has allowed just two hits and three walks and struck out a league-leading 12 batters.
McCraine has been on fire to start the 2025 PGCBL season. He leads the league in hits (14), RBIs (13) and total bases (21). McCraine is also 4-4 on stolen base attempts.
His eye-popping .583 batting average, .667 OBP and .875 slugging are also tops in the entire league.
The outfielder has hits in all seven of Amsterdam's games and has five multi-hit games in that time, powering the Mohawks to an undefeated start to the season. He slammed a home run in the opening game of the season, an 8-5 win over Oneonta and drove in seven runs with four hits in a 20-0 win over Mohawk Valley.
West Division
Pitcher of the Week: Luc Rising, Batavia (Rochester Institute of Technology)
Player: Grant Moore, Niagara Falls (Mount Vernon Nazarene University)
Rising has been a key cog in the pitching staff that has seen Batavia open the season with four wins.
He has made three appearances and given up just three hits and no runs over 7.2 innings. Most recently, Rising pitched two innings of scoreless relief and earned the victory in Batavia's 5-1 win over Niagara on June 8.
A week earlier, Rising threw three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out one. That helped Batavia settle things down after an early flurry of scoring from both teams, allowing the Muckdogs to pull out a 10-9 extra innings win over Jamestown.
Moore has put together four straight multi-hit games to open the season and is a big reason why Niagara Falls has opened the year 4-0. He got things started in a great fashion with two hits and two runs batted in as the Americans led off their season with a 10-8 win over Batavia.
It's on the basepaths where Moore has shined the brightest. He has scored eight runs and stolen eight bases without being caught, tied for the league lead in thefts but in the fewest number of games played. Yesterday, in a 13-6 win against Jamestown, Moore reached base four times, stole four bases and crossed the plate in each of the innings he was on base.