Oregon's Ryan Cooney earns Big Ten Conference honors

A big weekend at the plate for the Oregon Ducks earned them a road series victory over Illinois, but didn't push them up the ladder in the national rankings. However, the red-hot bats were led by a veteran Duck, who received conference honors for his performance in the series.

Oregon second baseman Ryan Cooney won Big Ten Co-Player of the Week, as announced in a press release from the conference. He will share the honor with Nebraska outfielder Drew Grego, who also took home Freshman of the Week honors.

While the Ducks were slumping at the plate, Cooney slid down to the third spot in the lineup as the Ducks' most consistent hitter to try to boost the offense. Since then, Oregon's offense has found new life, and Cooney crushed the Illini over the weekend in a hitter-friendly ballpark.

In the series, Cooney slashed .692/.750/1.308 and led the Ducks to three double-digit scoring outputs. Cooney reached base safely in 12 of his 16 plate appearances and extended his streak of at-bats without a strikeout to 33.

Cooney hit a pair of home runs in Sunday's win and finished the series with a 2.058 OPS and six runs scored. In the series opener on Friday, Cooney achieved the first five-hit game of his career, and the first five-hit game by any Oregon player since April 1, 2023 (Rikuu Nishida vs Arizona). He also collected four RBI and two doubles in the series.

The Ducks have been no strangers to the weekly conference awards this season. Cooney joined designated hitter Dominic Hellman as the only Ducks to be named Big Ten Player of the Week so far this season. It's also Cooney's third time receiving the honor, having won it twice last season.

Naulivou Lauaki Jr. won Big Ten Freshman of the Week last week, and Angel Laya has earned the same distinction twice this season. also won Big Ten Pitcher of the Week earlier this season.